Don’t Post NYSC Members To Schools; They Cause Mass Failure- Teachers Council

Started by emezico, Dec 13, 2012, 09:58 PM

emezico

The Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, on Tuesday, said authorities of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, should stop deployment of corps members, who lack basic knowledge of teaching, to teach in schools.

The Director of Operations of the Council, Steve Nwokocha, made the declaration at the maiden induction/graduation of 118 Professional Diploma in Education graduates held at the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta.

He said the deployment of unqualified teachers, like the youth corps members, contributed to the mass failure being witnessed in the country in recent years.

"The issue of having mass failure is a process. Part of the people contributing to the process are these corpers. It is an abuse to our profession," he said.

"Government should stop posting youth corpers to teach in schools. We at the council are against posting of NYSC without teaching background to schools," he added.

Mr. Nwokocha argued that only graduates of education should be posted to schools, saying the council was ready to rid the country of quack and fake teachers.

"What we are saying is that NYSC should make sure that only corps members who read education should be deployed to schools. Our council is against the deployment of graduates to schools," he emphasised.

Majority of the hundreds of thousands of graduates who partake in the NYSC program annually are posted to schools to teach.

In a related development, Mr. Nwokocha disclosed that the council has established a Teachers Tribunal across all states in the country to deal with erring professional teachers.

He said the tribunal composition comprises of 5 members, including one from a University; one from a College of Education; and three nominated by Commissioners for Education, one of which must be a lawyer.

He stated that the Tribunal is working in conjunction with the Attorney General of the Federation, which further makes it legal and constitutional

Mr. Nwokocha stated that the body, being the Africa headquarters, enjoyed adequate recognition at the international scene. He said graduates of other disciplines must undergo the programme before they could be recognized as a qualified teacher.

He threatened that schools who failed to comply with the body's directives could have their programmes de-registered.

The council leader said the council now directly receives the names of graduates from their respective institutions in order to ensure only qualified teachers are employed.

The Deputy Provost of the College of Education, Bolatito Adeniyi, who represented the Provost, said the programme was to formally initiate the fresh graduates into the teaching profession.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Technology, Ishola Ambali, advised the council on the need to publicise their activities regularly as it will serve as a medium to educate people.

Mr. Ambali, who represented the commissioner, also advised on need for the body to make it mandatory for government to ask for registration certificate obtained from the council before anyone is employed into the teaching service.