Teachers Council’s Registrar applauds nation’s education sector

The Registrar of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria TRCN, Professor Josiah Ajiboye has applauded the Nigerian education sector saying the quality of graduates produced in institutions across the country competes favourably globally.

Prof. Ajiboye said despite challenges facing the nation’s education sector that Nigeria has continued to provide the world with huge human capacities with the best knowledge.

At a one-day retreat on the State of Education in Nigeria organised by the Education Correspondent Association of Nigeria ECAN in Abuja, Prof. Ajiboye further stated that Nigeria’s education is among the best all over the world as the graduates are sort after globally.

 “Nigeria’s education is among one of the best in the world as of today, if not, why are Nigerian professionals going outside the country?

“Even as of today, if you look at the quality of our graduates, they are people that can compete with other people all over the world. People will always tell you the standard is falling but who is setting the standards” Prof. Ajiboye added.

“Even this year alone, I have signed letters of professional standing for over 260 Nigerians going to teach in Canada alone and as of this morning; we have a letter from the UK from the head of their teaching council.

“She sends a message for a pro-former letter of professional standing because they want to start taking Nigerian teachers massively following the fact BREXIT’’

 “If anybody is telling you are not doing well, though we have our challenges in all these situations, we still have the best graduates,” he said.

Ajiboye called on the Nigerian media to correct the misrepresentation of the quality of education from Nigerian higher institutions. He said that only the media will help the country in amplifying the positive values of the sector to draw the attention of foreign countries to partner, explore and invest in the nation’s education sector.

He emphasised the need to change the narrative by not dwelling on negative narratives which according to him are almost overwhelming the country.

The Registrar of, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, commended the association on their roles in projecting the image of the country, especially in the education sector.

Oloyede, who was represented by the Head, of Public Affairs and Protocol, JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin called for the introduction of a National Education Insurance Scheme to address the problem of access, especially in state universities.

“The Federal Government put in place state institutions to address the need for admission access because one of the major problems is spaces in our institutions and most candidates cannot afford these institutions.

“The country should be able to support the education scheme whereby a certain percentage can be paid by the Federal Government so that subscribers can attend private institutions,” he said.

On the issue of lowering cut-off marks, he said that the cut-off mark was a minimum benchmark that institutions must not go below which did not affect education standards.

Global Acceptability of NECO Certificates

The Registrar of, the National Examination Council (NECO), Prof. Ibrahim Wushishi, who spoke on the global acceptability of the NECO certificate, said its certificate had global recognition through an educational assessment body.

“NECO is a strong member of the International Association for Educational Assessment and we play a vital role in the global assessment of examination.

 So candidates that took their NECO exams are being admitted into secondary and tertiary institutions in foreign countries like the U.S., Canada, Germany, India, China, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and Sweden and they write the council to authenticate the results from NECO.

 “In fact, between January to August 2022, we received 490 requests from more than 50 countries across the world to confirm the authenticity of our results,” he said.

Wushishi, however, advised Nigerians not to take the education sector for granted, saying that the sector should be projected in a good light to the world.

Dominica Nwabufo