Funmi Lawrence
Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has called for professionalism in the teaching profession
Mr Abimbola Okunola, Assistant Director in the council made the call in Karu on Friday at a one-day Capacity Training Workshop for Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN), sponsored by TRCN.
He said this would create successful impact in the education sector.
The workshop has the theme “Professionalism of Teaching and Teacher Education in Nigeria”.
Okunola said that the teaching profession had been rated more critical than any other profession in the world, hence the need to attract the best brains for the practice of teaching in the country.
According to him, teaching is rated extremely important to the development agenda of any society and Nigeria must not be left out.
“In the honourable court of France, only teachers are allowed to sit on the chair. In Japan, the police force has to take special permission from the government to arrest a teacher for any reason.
“In Korea, only teachers enjoy the privilege of a minister and in Germany, teachers are among the highest paid civil servants.
“In the beginning, teaching was so glorious and so noble that in every communities teachers were considered next to kings in importance and development of the society,” he said.
He added that unprecedented rise in societal demand for education, institutionalization of materialism; emergence of greener pastures among others had forced teachers into a relegated position in the country.
He, therefore, emphasized the need for professionalism as the secret behind the success or collapse of any vocation, hence the need to critically take professionalism serious in the teaching profession.
He also called on teachers to maintain standards at all times as a Teachers Investigative Panel had been created by the council to sanction erring teachers.
Okunola added that the council was collaborating with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to train 28,000 unqualified teachers.
Similarly, Dr Magaji Waziri, Assistant Director, Department of Planning, Research and Statistics in the council, said that the country hads been flooded with unqualified manpower which had lowered the quality of teachers in the system.
Waziri maintained that there was therefore need to set standards at all level while ensuring quality teaching and learning through monitoring and supervision of teacher education programmes.
Mr Chuks Ukwuata, Chairman of ECAN called on journalists to ensure adequate reportage of education stories to foster development in other sector.
Ukwuata commended TRCN for their role in ensuring excellence in the education professionalism of teachers as well as maintenance of teachers’ quality.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to give TRCN boss the chance to pilot affairs of the council for second term to continue transforming teaching profession towards attaining greater heights.
Also, Mr Emmanuel Ogbeche, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) tasked journalists on their role in ensuring that crisis in the education sector were resolved.
Ogbeche, who spoke on the topic ‘Education Reporting in Time of Crisis’ called for funding for schools security to ensure the safety of school children.
He added that it was time the country fixed her education by having a transitional education programmes that would translate into development of other sector.
