The Federal Government has launched a new six-month programme to train and certify 250,000 serving teachers who currently do not have recognised teaching qualifications.
The accelerated pathway aims to professionalise unqualified teachers without removing them from classrooms.
The initiative, named the ‘Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway, ATPP’, will be coordinated by the National Teachers’ Institute under the supervision of the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa.
In a statement on Friday, the NTI said the programme is designed to bridge a long-standing gap in the basic education system by giving classroom teachers a credible route to professional status.
It described the absence of professional qualifications among many teachers as a “long-standing structural weakness” in the country’s basic education system.
The government stressed that the programme will not lead to the removal of the affected teachers.
Instead, the statement said the programme would not phase out the affected teachers from the classroom, but would instead “empower and professionalise them.”
The NTI, led by its Director and Chief Executive, Prof. Sadiya Daura, will serve as the coordinating secretariat. It will work with UBEC, TRCN, NERDC, NSSEC, NUC and other agencies.
The ATPP will run for six months and will be delivered in two tracks: the postgraduate diploma in education for degree holders in non-education fields and the professional diploma in education for NCE/ND holders already teaching.
The training will combine self-paced digital lessons, virtual classes, assessments and supervised teaching practice. The teaching practice will be carried out in the teachers’ own schools and verified on site.
“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 NTI said.
Curriculum frameworks for both routes have been reviewed and finalised by a panel of about 40 experts from universities, colleges of education and education agencies.
Officials said the goal is to create a “credible, affordable and time-bound route” for teachers to obtain TRCN-recognised qualifications without leaving their jobs.
