FG to train 250,000 unqualified teachers

File: Education minister, Tunji Alausa

The Federal Government has commenced preparations for a six-month programme to train and professionalise 250,000 serving teachers without recognised teaching qualifications.

The National Teachers’ Institute, in a statement issued on Friday, said it had been mandated to coordinate the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway under the supervision of the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa.

According to the statement, the programme was aimed at professionalising non-professional teachers and bridging their qualification gaps.

It described the absence of professional qualifications among a significant number of teachers as a “long-standing structural weakness” in the country’s basic education system.

The NTI said the situation had remained a concern to policymakers and other stakeholders, noting that some of the affected teachers were neither licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria nor within the professional standards enforced by the council.

The institute, under the leadership of its Director and Chief Executive, Prof. Sadiya Daura, has been designated as the coordinating secretariat for the programme.

It will work with the Universal Basic Education Commission, TRCN, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, National Senior Secondary Education Commission, National Universities Commission and other relevant institutions, alongside the Federal Ministry of Education.

The statement said the programme would not phase out the affected teachers from the classroom, but would instead “empower and professionalise them.”

The ATPP will be delivered through two routes—the Postgraduate Diploma in Education for serving teachers who hold degrees in non-education disciplines and the Professional Diploma in Education for serving teachers entering from the National Diploma cadre.

Both routes will combine self-paced digital content, virtual facilitated sessions, structured assessment checkpoints and supervised teaching practice.

Unlike simulated training arrangements, the teaching practice will be verified in the teachers’ own schools.

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The NTI said it would deliver the programme through existing mandate institutions rather than establish a parallel project unit.

According to the statement, the academic preparations for the programme had substantially been completed, with the curriculum frameworks for both routes reviewed, validated and finalised.

Module development was undertaken by a national panel of approximately 40 content experts drawn from universities, colleges of education and relevant agencies, including NTI, TRCN, NSSEC, UBEC and NERDC.

The programme architecture has also been mapped across the federal, state and local government levels, while outstanding work includes the digital curriculum delivery flow, teaching practice component and engagement with partner institutions.

Explaining the blended approach, the NTI said it was being adopted “by necessity, combining virtual and physical components; rather than by preference.”

The design will place four components in a repeating cycle across each module to ensure that teachers do not progress solely on the strength of digital technology.

The institute will coordinate curriculum, content management and quality assurance of deliverables in collaboration with UBEC and the Steering Committee.

The ATPP will run for six months, comprising four months of intensive instruction and two months of teaching practice.

Emphasising the importance of the practical component, the statement said, “The teaching practice component is most likely to determine whether the pathway produces a change in the classroom or merely a change in paperwork.”

The practicum will involve structured teaching practice, mentor and supervisor protocols, as well as documented evidence of lessons, pupils’ work and supervisor sign-offs.

The NTI said the programme would provide “a credible, affordable and time-bound route” for serving teachers without teaching qualifications to obtain TRCN-recognised professional qualifications.