Teachers Registration Council Wants Act Amendment to Strengthen Regulatory Powers

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has disclosed that it has approached the National Assembly for amendment to the Act establishing the council to change its name to Teachers Regulatory Council of Nigeria.

The Registrar of TRCN, Prof Josiah Ajiboye, stated this in Abuja yesterday while speaking as a guest lecturer at the 24th annual seminar of the Nigerian Academy of Education with the theme: ‘Professionalisation of Teaching in Nigeria, Past, Present and Future’.

Ajiboye said although TRCN conducts registration of teachers, it performs other regulatory functions in terms of ensuring quality, monitoring and accreditation of programmes as well as providing training programmes for teachers.

According to him, “Part of things we are looking forward to in the future is a change in the name of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria to the Teacher Regulatory Council of Nigeria; it’s the same TRCN. Actually, the idea behind that is that when you hear teachers’ registration council, people normally think that the function of TRCN is limited to registration of teachers.

“And we say no to that; although we register the teachers, we perform other regulatory functions in terms of ensuring quality, monitoring and accreditation of programmes as well as training programmes for teachers.

“So, we do more of regulation than just registration of teachers. We are not limited to registering teachers only. It’s Teachers’ Regulatory Council that would actually capture the essence of what we do at the level of TRCN. And that is why we are making that proposal to the House Committee on Basic Education.”