Being excepts of interview conducted with Prof. Josiah Olusegun Ajiboye, The Registrar, Chief Executive of Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, on the decadence in Nigerian Higher institutions.
Prof Ans:- Our mandate is to regulate Colleges of Education in Nigeria and make it work effectively. To have detected that there were indeed illegal Colleges of Education in existence in Nigeria means that National Commission on Colleges of Education, (NCCE) is working, up and doing and doing their job well and effectively.
The list of illegal Colleges of Education are being published continuously by NCCE on periodic basis and kudos must be given to the Executive Secretary of NCCE who has been doing a good job. Same regulatory steps are being taken by National University Commission, (NUC), in ensuring that the university system is being regulated and illegal universities are exposed and sanctioned as list of approved Universities and Colleges of Education are being published and make available to the public.
In addition, the Federal Ministry of Education has a department that is saddled with the responsibilities of certificate verification especially the foreign certificates. All this efforts are being put in place so that illegal people and illegal institutions cannot gate crash into our system.
Ques: What is your opinion Prof. on the surge and emigration of young people trying to study abroad?
Prof Ans:- The urge of young people rushing abroad to study especially in mushroom universities in the sub west African states are being condemned in totality. Benin Republic and Ghana are good examples in this regard because we have had a situation where just a story building in Ghana is being used and represented as a university. Our young people are patronising them because they cannot get access to Universities at home and that is why the National University Commission, NUC, is working day and night in ensuring that people do not fall victim but ensure that any school they go abroad are accredited universities back home.
Ques:- What are the efforts of Government in Nigeria in standardising our private schools and improving efficiency in the public school?
Prof - Ans:- Government has done her own bid and effirts to a large extent by establishing the regulatory bodies such as NUC, NCCE, NBTE and JAMB. It is now left for the institutions established to step up their games and for our people to comply with extant rules. NUC used to publish the list of illegal universities in the national dailies as guidelines for the public, therefore, citizens must adopt the legal maxim, which says Caveat Emptor - meaning buyers be aware!
Ques:- What is your view Prof. that capacity building take centre stage in our educational planning?
Prof. Ans:- Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, is NOT just to register and license teachers only but also train and retrain teachers. One of our mandate is capacity building. Recently, the Minister of Education has approved training for (45,000), forty-five thousand teachers on the platform of global partnership on Education on Digital Literacy and Online Learning. So far, (30,000), thirty thousand teachers have been trained and if we can continue training teachers on periodic basis, it will be a good development for Nigerian educational system.
The right way to go therefore is not to sack teachers but to train, retrain and motivate them with the aim of achieving results just like Lagos State Government gave out (13), thirteen SUV brand new cars to 13 teachers in Lagos State as motivation and same feet was achieved by the Federal Government during the World Teachers' Day in Abuja.
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