The Federal Government will no longer accommodate untrained teachers in its school system, irrespective of the subjects they teach, Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, has said.
In an interview in Abuja, Anwukah noted that over 50 per cent of teachers were not trained, urging teachers without proper qualifications to acquire one.
He warned that the era of employing teachers to teach a particular subject because of unemployment had passed, stressing that government is determined to get it right.
His words: “We can no longer afford to have untrained teachers in our school regardless of their single subject area qualification. You must develop the art of teaching; you must be trained in the appropriate skills in order to become a teacher in our schools.
“If you do not have a teaching qualification, please do something about it in the next one or two years, acquire the basic skills needed in teaching if you want to keep functioning in the school system.
“We have capable people, trained, certified and registered as teachers. There’s a law presently in this country that if you’re not trained as a teacher, you should not be in the classroom and if you’re found in the classroom, you’re subject to being charged. But nobody is enforcing it.
“Right now, the education system, in terms of teachers, is almost populated by about more than 50 per cent of people who are untrained. It is one thing to have qualification in a specific discipline but it is necessary that over and above that discipline, you are trained to be able to teach.”
On the recruitment of 500,000 teachers, the minister explained that government was working out modalities to accommodate the best hands in the profession.
He added that the Ministry of Education would cooperate with relevant agencies that are directly involved in the recruitment exercise.
“We are interfacing with all the agencies that may have complained about the exercise. As soon as things are sorted out, Nigerians will have the opportunity to apply for and be recruited.”
END
The decision of federal government as regards employing trained teacher in the forthcoming recruitment is laudable.The teacher registration council should rise to this educational challenge especially at this particular time when government is trying to enforce the existing law. This will in many ways improve the quality of education in Nigeria.