The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has raised concerns over the growing number of unqualified teachers in the country, describing it as a major factor behind the decline in educational standards.
The Chief Executive Officer of TRCN, Dr. Ronke Soyombo, made this known on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’, on the occasion of the 2025 World Teachers’ Day, themed “Recasting Teaching as a Collaborative Profession.”
Dr. Soyombo lamented that many individuals currently teaching in schools across Nigeria lacked the necessary qualifications to effectively carry out their duties — a situation more prevalent in private institutions.
“There are many unqualified teachers in the profession. We have those teaching in classrooms but don’t have the teaching qualifications, particularly in private schools,” she said.
She explained that while some individuals genuinely have a passion for teaching, their lack of formal training has hindered their enrollment into the profession.
“It is one thing for you to say you have been to teacher’s college, and it is another thing to be able to break it down to the level of the students to soothe their specific needs,” she noted. “This challenge has to be addressed, and as soon as we have the accelerated programme, that is going to bring a lot of teachers in, because they don’t want to come to public schools. What is stopping them is that they don’t have education degrees.”
Dr. Soyombo revealed that the TRCN currently has about 1.4 million registered teachers, with plans to expand that number to 20 million within the next two years through system digitization and accelerated registration processes.
(Leadership)
