NTI to Coordinate ATPP, Leads FG’s Drive to Professionalise Teachers, Bridge Qualification Gaps By Beauty Akporido Aroh

The National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, under the leadership of its Director and Chief Executive, Prof. Sadiya Sani Daura, has been mandated to coordinate the Federal Government’s new Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), under the supervision of the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON.

The ATPP is designed to advance the Federal Government’s drive to professionalise non-professional teachers and bridge existing qualification gaps within Nigeria’s teaching workforce.

Initiated by the Minister, the programme seeks to address a long-standing structural weakness in the country’s basic education system, where a significant number of teachers have been teaching without recognised professional qualifications.

The situation has been a concern to policymakers and education stakeholders, particularly as many of the affected teachers are neither licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) nor fully covered by the professional standards the Council is mandated to enforce.

Under the new arrangement, NTI, the country’s largest teacher-training institution, has been saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the ATPP in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), TRCN, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), National Universities Commission (NUC) and other relevant institutions, under the Federal Ministry of Education.

The initiative, being implemented under the present administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, is designed to close the qualification gap without removing serving teachers from the classroom. Rather, it will provide them with a structured pathway to acquire professional qualifications and strengthen their teaching capacity.

The ATPP will be delivered through two defined routes in a blended format: the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for serving teachers who hold degrees in non-education disciplines, and the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for serving teachers entering from the National Diploma cadre.

Both routes will combine self-paced digital learning, facilitated virtual sessions, structured assessment checkpoints and supervised teaching practice. The teaching practice will be verified in the teachers’ own schools rather than conducted in simulated off-site centres.

NTI will serve as the Coordinating Secretariat, delivering the programme through existing mandate institutions rather than creating a parallel project structure.

In preparation for the programme’s take-off, the academic component has been substantially completed. Curriculum frameworks for both routes have been reviewed, validated and finalised, while module development was undertaken by a national panel of about 40 content experts drawn from universities, colleges of education and relevant mandate agencies, including NTI, TRCN, NSSEC, UBEC and NERDC.

The programme architecture has also been mapped across the federal, state and local government levels, with the remaining work focused on the digital curriculum delivery flow, teaching practice component and further engagement with partner institutions.

The blended delivery model is designed as a necessity rather than a preference, combining virtual and physical components to ensure that teachers do not progress through the programme solely on the strength of digital technology.

The structure places four components in a repeating cycle across each module, combining learning, engagement and assessment with practical application.

As the Secretariat, NTI will coordinate curriculum implementation, content management and quality assurance of deliverables in collaboration with UBEC and the ATPP Steering Committee.

The ATPP is a six-month programme, comprising four months of intensive instruction followed by a two-month teaching practice component.

The teaching practice is expected to be a critical element of the programme, designed to ensure that professionalisation translates into improved classroom practice rather than merely additional qualifications on paper.

Its framework is built around a structured practicum, a defined mentor and supervisor protocol, and documented evidence, including practice lessons, pupils’ work and learning artefacts, as well as supervisor sign-offs maintained as part of each candidate’s records.

The training is expected to provide a credible, affordable and time-bound pathway for serving teachers without professional teaching qualifications to obtain TRCN-recognised professional qualifications while remaining in service.

Meanwhile, the media and communication strategy for the programme was deliberated upon by the Sub-Committee on Media and Communication, headed by the Executive Secretary of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission, Dr. Iyela Ajayi.

NTI was represented at the deliberations by its Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Mal. Yusha’u Ahmed.

The ATPP, which is expected to engage 250,000 Nigerian teachers, is scheduled for launch in October 2026.