The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has thrown its weight behind the Federal Government’s new Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP).
TRCN Media Head, Esther Chiwar who disclosed this in a statement on Friday noted that ATPP was a programme designed to give more than 250,000 serving but unqualified teachers a clear route to licensing.
The ATPP, which will be conducted in cohorts, aims to equip untrained teachers in Nigerian public and private schools, with the necessary skills and certification to teach. Candidates who passed the prescribed ATPP examination will be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) organised by TRCN before they are registered as qualified Teachers and issued licenses.
The initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad.
TRCN, alongside the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, will drive implementation, with support from agencies including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
For years, TRCN had struggled with the reality of thousands of teachers in classrooms without professional qualifications or licences. Many hold degrees in their subject areas but never passed through recognised teacher-training routes, leaving them vulnerable to sanctions and excluded from career progression. The ATPP is intended to close that gap while allowing teachers to remain in service.
The six-month programme offers two routes: Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates in non-education disciplines; and Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for those from the National Diploma cadre.
Both combine four months of blended learning, self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments with two months of supervised teaching practice in the teachers’ own schools. Successful participants will then sit the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE), with certification and licensing covered by the programme fee.
Officials say the ATPP will engage about 250,000 teachers nationwide, mapped across federal, state and local levels.
