Some 9,204 Teachers have written the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
Meanwhile, TRCN says it has rescheduled the Examination in Sokoto and Zamfara states over recent security concerns.
TRCN’s Acting Director of Certification and Licensing, Dr Jacinta Ogboso, who disclosed this in Abuja while supervising the examination at SALSCON International School on Saturday, said a total of 9,204 teachers participated in the exercise nationwide, with the exception of the two states.
Mrs Ogboso explained that 125 candidates registered for the exercise in Sokoto while 151 candidates registered in Zamfara state, adding that the examination in the two states will be rescheduled as soon as the situation improves.
“We have to reschedule the exam for Sokoto and Zamfara states because we want to be sure of the situation,” she said.
“So those two are not writing today. They are going to either write online or we find another time.”
She also disclosed that 663 candidates sat for the exam in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, even as she commended the conduct of the exercise for being “very smooth” because, according to her, “TRCN started this exam since 2017 and keeps improving on the processes”.
Mrs Ogboso said the examination has been reduced to two diet per year due to reduction in applications, adding that the surge in applications earlier experienced at the peak of the PQE was due to the rush to meet the deadline for implementation of the government’s policy of ensuring that only professionally qualified teachers were in its school system.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, who also monitored the exercise at SALSCON International School, said teachers who have not registered to write the PQE were “not teachers as far as Nigeria is concerned”.
For instance, in the medical profession, after your university, there is a compulsory exam you must pass before you are a doctor; and for a teacher, you must pass through this compulsory exam before you are a teacher,” Mr Adejo explained.
“So, those who have not pass through this process are only at best to be said to be impersonating, and government cannot allow that going forward. We need to standardise the teaching practice; this exam is one of the things that will do that.”
He praised the conduct of the exercise, saying the processes of accreditation, examination and resetting of the systems for the next set of people was great, given that everything went peacefully and orderly.
RN