TRCN to License 250,000 Unqualified Teachers Through ATPP By Beauty Akporido Aroh
The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has backed the Federal Government’s Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), a major initiative designed to provide more than 250,000 serving but unqualified teachers with a structured pathway to professional certification and licensing.
The ATPP, which will be implemented in cohorts, is aimed at equipping untrained teachers in public and private schools with the requisite professional skills and certification to remain and advance in the teaching profession.
Under the programme, candidates who successfully complete the prescribed ATPP examination will be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) conducted by TRCN. Those who meet the requirements will subsequently be registered as qualified teachers and issued professional teaching licences.
The initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa (FAMedS), CON, is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad.
TRCN, in collaboration with the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, will drive the implementation of the programme, with support from key education agencies, including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).
The ATPP seeks to address a long-standing challenge within Nigeria’s education sector, where thousands of teachers are serving in classrooms without formal professional teaching qualifications or licences.
A significant number of such teachers possess degrees or qualifications in their respective subject areas but did not undergo recognised teacher-training programmes. This has affected their professional progression and, in some cases, exposed them to regulatory sanctions.
The new pathway is designed to bridge that gap by providing serving teachers with an opportunity to acquire professional teaching qualifications without leaving their current employment.
The six-month programme provides two qualification routes: the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates from non-education disciplines, and the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for candidates from the National Diploma cadre.
Both pathways combine four months of blended learning, comprising self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments, with two months of supervised teaching practice conducted in the participants’ own schools.
Upon successful completion of the programme, participants will proceed to the TRCN Professional Qualifying Examination, while certification and licensing costs are covered under the programme fee.
According to the implementation framework, the ATPP is expected to engage approximately 250,000 teachers nationwide, with participants mapped across federal, state and local government levels.
The initiative represents a coordinated effort by the Federal Government and its education agencies to strengthen teacher professionalism, improve classroom standards and create a clearer regulatory pathway for serving teachers who lack formal professional teaching credentials.
