There are indications that the federal government has begun to device indirect means of retrenching teachers in federal schools across the country at a time Nigerian workers are anticipating the commencement of payment of the N30,000 new Minimum Wage. In the new policy, the government is shifting qualification emphasis from the institutional identities of training teachers across Nigeria to a centralized council established by the federal government. There is palpable fear that the directive may lead to job loss.
National Daily recalls that similar policy was being introduced in the 1990s where all teachers, including lecturers in the various universities were mandated to receive teachers training from either colleges of education or department of education from the numerous universities in order to come under the umbrella of the Teachers registration Council of Nigeria. However, there was strong opposition from university teachers who argued that even the education institutions have their own deficiencies which would not make any impact on their skills in any form of training. The policy died there.
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Meanwhile, the federal government has directed that any teacher not licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) before December 2019 would be fired. This is coming at a time the federal government is still working out modalities for the payment of the N30,000 new Minimum Wage recently passed into law.
National Daily learned that the Registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Professor Ajiboye Segun, issued the threat as a means of improving teaching standard in the country.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Sonny Echonu, was said to have remarked that increasing graduate unemployment in the country is responsible for poor tertiary curriculum, thereof, advocating stringent measures towards improving the quality of education in Nigeria.
Representative of the World Bank, Tunde Adekola, and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Olufemi Bamiro, was said to have counseled that Nigeria must get serious in developing skills of her youth in order to address the disconnect between universities and industry.