TRCN uncovers 250 fake certificates in teachers’ recruitment

Detailed summary

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria has uncovered 250 fake teaching certificates during a recruitment exercise, prompting a digital verification c Read More:…

The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria says it has uncovered 250 fake teaching certificates during a recruitment exercise, prompting the rollout of Quick Response (QR)-coded certificates and stricter digital verification.

The Chief Executive and Registrar of TRCN, Dr Ronke Soyombo, said the move was aimed at flushing out quacks from Nigerian classrooms.

Soyombo disclosed this while monitoring the ongoing computer-based Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) at Redeemer’s TEAP International School, Abuja, on Thursday.

She revealed that the council made the discovery during a recruitment process in which an unidentified state sought to employ about 1,000 teachers.

She warned that forged credentials posed a grave threat to the nation’s education standards.

To curb the circulation of fake certificates, she explained that TRCN now issues certificates embedded with QR codes that link employers directly to the council’s portal for instant authentication before recruitment.

She added that the council had also tightened examination integrity by deploying randomised, qualification-differentiated questions so that PhD, first-degree and Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) holders sitting beside one another could not engage in malpractice.

Beyond weeding out unqualified personnel, Soyombo noted that the Federal Government had set a strict deadline to ensure that 75 per cent of teachers were licensed by the end of 2026 and 100 per cent were certified before entering any classroom by December 2027.

Commending the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, for backing the mandatory certification drive, the registrar stressed that a first-class degree alone did not qualify an individual to teach without proven competence in pedagogy, child safeguarding and digital literacy.

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