By Adeola Kunle
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has endorsed the Federal Government’s Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), a new initiative aimed at providing more than 250,000 serving teachers without professional qualifications with a structured route to certification and licensing.
The ATPP will be implemented in cohorts and is designed to provide untrained teachers working in public and private schools with the professional knowledge, skills and certification required for effective classroom practice.
Participants who successfully complete the prescribed ATPP examination will qualify to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by TRCN. Those who meet the requirements will subsequently be registered as professional teachers and issued teaching licences.
The programme is being driven by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa (FAMedS), CON, and coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad. TRCN and the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, will lead the implementation, with the support of key education agencies, including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
The initiative responds to the long-standing challenge of teachers serving in classrooms without recognised professional qualifications or teaching licences. While many of these teachers possess degrees in their respective subject areas, they did not undergo approved teacher-training programmes, a situation that has exposed them to possible sanctions and limited opportunities for career advancement.
Through the ATPP, the Federal Government seeks to address this gap while enabling affected teachers to acquire professional qualifications without leaving their teaching positions.
The six-month programme provides two qualification pathways. Graduates from non-education disciplines will pursue the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE), while candidates from the National Diploma cadre will undertake the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE).
Both pathways consist of four months of blended learning, covering self-paced online courses, virtual facilitation and assessments, followed by two months of supervised teaching practice within the participants’ own schools.
Teachers who successfully complete the programme will proceed to the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE). The cost of certification and licensing is included in the ATPP programme fee.
The Federal Government plans to reach approximately 250,000 teachers across the country, with participants identified and mapped across the federal, state and local government levels.
Adeola Kunle
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