By Rosemary Ogbonnaya
The Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has said that plans are underway to begin Teachers Exchange Program with the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy to develop digital literacy capacity of teachers in Nigeria.
Nwajiuba, made this known in Abuja while monitoring the conduct of the Teachers Professional Qualifying Examination PQE organized by Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria.
According to the Minister, the Federal Ministry of Education is working out details with the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy to use digital bridge institutes across the 6geo political zones to enhance the computer knowledge of the Nigerian teachers.
He said the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria TRCN has been mandated to work with the Nigerian Union of Teachers NUT to activate the One teacher One Computer programme .
Minister said through the Federal Ministry of Education will enable laptop vendors to vend to teachers while they have the payment done within the period of two to four years.
” We are working in collaboration with the ministry of communication and digital economy to do exchange programs with teachers to use the digital bridge institutes that had already been built by the Federal Ministry of Communication and we are still working on the details”.
“The Federal Ministry of Education will enable laptop vendors to vend to teachers and we will give them a period of time of 2-4years period of time to complete the payment, we have finished carrying out interviews for the vendors we just want the NUT and TRCN to conclude,” he said.
The Minister also applauded the conduct of the PQE and said he identified professional knowledge and teacher competence in the computer based examination.
“We took time to review what TRCN has put in place for the conduct of PQE,we observed that the teachers are being conducted in a workable manner and the integrity of the exam is commendable, we also came.to inspect and see what may be the gaps in the way are as we access them,” said Nwajiuba
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono,who also monitored the PQE at SASCON international school Maitama Abuja , said that the Career Path Progression for teachers in Nigeria has been approved at the government and National Council on Establishment level.
“We decided to resuscitate teaching profession in Nigeria through additional incentives and career paths this is to ensure that teachers are actually specialized in specific areas ;individuals in teaching profession will now follow through a particular career path , we will now have people who will make specialise in School administration, curriculum and special skills”.
Speaking also, the TRCN Director Certification and Licensing, Dr Jacinta Ogborso, said a total number of 12,586 candidates across 35 states and the FCT registered for the PQE nationwide.
She disclosed that no candidate registered for the PQE in Zamfara state due to the security challenge facing the state.
” Registration for PQE was affected in Zamfara state due to communication and security issues in the state”
Ogborso attributed the reduction in the numbers of candidates who registered for the November 2021 PQE to previous surge the council had registered saying that a good number of teachers in Nigeria have been registered .
