The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has backed the Federal Government’s new Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP), designed to give over 250,000 serving but unqualified teachers a clear route to professional licensing.
The ATPP, to be conducted in cohorts, is aimed at equipping untrained teachers in public and private schools with the necessary skills and certification to teach.
Candidates who pass the prescribed ATPP examination will be eligible to sit for the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) organised by TRCN before registration and licensing.
The initiative, led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, is being coordinated by a Technical Working Group chaired by Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, Minister of State for Education.
A statement by Head Media, Esther Chiwar, said TRCN alongside the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, will drive implementation, with support from UBEC, NSSEC, NERDC and NCCE.
For years, TRCN has battled the reality of thousands of teachers in classrooms without professional qualifications or licences.
Many hold degrees in subject areas but never passed through recognised teacher-training routes, leaving them vulnerable to sanctions and excluded from career progression.
The ATPP is intended to close that gap while allowing teachers to remain in service.
The six-month programme offers two routes:
Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for graduates in non-education disciplines
Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) for those from the National Diploma cadre
Both combine four months of blended learning — self-paced online modules, virtual facilitation and assessments — with two months of supervised teaching practice in the teachers’ own schools.
Successful participants will then sit the TRCN PQE, with certification and licensing covered by the programme fee.
Officials say the ATPP will engage about 250,000 teachers nationwide, mapped across federal, state and local levels.