An educationist, Mr Augustine Agali, on Friday urged the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria to clamp down on unqualified teachers operating in the country.
Agali told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that many unqualified people had taken up teaching jobs without the appropriate qualification and experience.
He said that many teachers found in classrooms across the country today were not duly registered with the council, thus projecting the profession in bad light.
According to him, the mandate of TRCN is to regulate and control teaching profession at all levels of the nation’s education system, both in the public and private sectors.
“Every teacher practising in the country must be duly registered before he or she can take-up a teaching job.
“But it is unfortunate that the profession has been jeopardised due to inadequate monitoring and regulations,’’ he said.
Agali expressed worry over the increasing rate of sexual harassment and rape in schools.
He, therefore, called for stiffer penalty against culprits to stem the ugly situation.
The educationist said that any form of sexual harassment among school owners, headmaster/headmistress, principal, teachers or students must be thoroughly investigated.
He said that anybody found guilty must be sanctioned while the certificate of any erring person should be withdrawn so as to serve as a deterrent to others.
“The problem we have in this country is that teachers are no longer educated like in those old days.
“Nowadays, we have teachers obtaining certificate in teaching on part-time basis; many of them do not know the rudiments of teaching.
“Neither do they possess the qualities to be good teachers.
“Many of them do not attend classes and yet they still graduated and were awarded certificates.
“How many modern day teachers have read books published by our great writers like Wole Soyinka, Babs Fafunwa and others?
“The Federal Government should make efforts to ensure that any teacher operating in the country is duly registered,’’ he said.
NAN
