Nigeria’s teaching profession is heading for a major regulatory shake-up as the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) moves to enforce full professional certification and licensing of teachers by December 2027.
The Council’s Registrar, Dr Ronke Soyombo, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with The Nation, saying the move is part of broader reforms aimed at restoring professionalism, strengthening standards, and ensuring that only qualified and licensed practitioners remain in Nigerian classrooms.
According to Soyombo, the Council has set a target of ensuring that at least 75 per cent of teachers possess TRCN certificates by the end of 2026, while schools will increasingly be required to demonstrate compliance with the professional certification requirement.
She said the Council would monitor schools seeking to register candidates for public examinations, including those conducted by the National Examinations Council (NECO), to determine whether they meet the 75 per cent professional certification threshold.
“By December 2027, no teacher will be allowed to remain in the classroom without a valid TRCN licence,” Soyombo said.
She disclosed that, as part of its reforms, the TRCN is also changing the structure of its Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE).
Soyombo explained that the Council is moving away from a system that could give the impression of a uniform examination irrespective of academic qualification.
According to her, under the new integrated examination system, candidates will be assessed according to the qualification for which they seek registration.
“Thus, a PhD holder will take a PhD-level examination, a first-degree holder will take a degree-level examination, while an NCE holder will take an NCE-level examination.”
The new structure, she said, will commence with the November examination.
The reform is also designed to eliminate ambiguity over the qualification a candidate presents at the point of registration.
“For instance, a candidate who sits for the examination as an NCE holder cannot subsequently rely on obtaining a doctorate after the examination to claim that the earlier examination should be treated as a PhD-level assessment.
The date on which the qualification was obtained will therefore become critical.
“If the doctorate was obtained before the examination, the candidate will need to sit for the appropriate examination to register as a PhD holder,” Soyombo explained.
She noted that the TRCN is also overhauling the technology underpinning its certification process.
Soyombo said the Council inherited a test-taking platform with serious capacity limitations, particularly as the number of candidates seeking professional certification increased.
At the time, she said, the system could accommodate only about 120 candidates at a time, forcing the Council to spread examinations over several days.
“The new platform has dramatically increased that capacity. We can now accommodate up to 5,000 candidates at a time,” she said.
The technological upgrade is expected to enable the council to conduct examinations simultaneously across different states, subject to the capacity of available Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.
The scale of demand became evident during the May 2026 examination, which attracted more than 26,000 candidates nationwide.
Soyombo said the council is examining how these areas of the teaching profession can be properly reflected in its emerging professional framework.
“There are different categories and areas of specialisation within the education sector, and these are being taken into consideration as we continue to develop the professional framework,” she added.
