Olaleye Aluko, Abuja

The National Council on Education has approved the reintroduction of History into the curriculum for primary and secondary schools nationwide.

The Chief Executive of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, who announced the NCE’s decision in a briefing in Abuja, noted that the re-introduction of History was agreed on at a meeting in Kano State.

Ajiboye, who said the TRCN had registered 1.8 million teachers, added that the council would conduct a Professional Qualifying Examination for about 15,000 teachers in October.

The TRCN boss lamented that there was still a shortage of qualified teachers for the country’s 170m population.

Ajiboye said the qualifying examination would help to restore sanity to the teaching profession and eliminate quacks.

He said, “We were aware of the issues regarding Religious Studies in the present curriculum, which were recently resolved. But, as the government said, the decision to join the religious subjects was reached during the previous administration.

“The NCE held a meeting last week in Kano State where it also agreed that History should be re-introduced into the curriculum.

“At the TRCN, we have also taken measures to eliminate quacks among our teachers. The council successfully distributed Teachers Bio-data forms to the 774 Local Government Areas of the country. The Bio-data will help to know the numbers of subject teachers and where they are located across the country and this will address the disproportionate distribution of teachers.”

The registrar added that the mandate of the council covered public and private schools, noting that it would intensify efforts on the certification and monitoring of teachers.

“Within a year, we registered an additional 130,645 teachers to bring total of registered teachers to 1.8million. We also inducted 29,381 teachers at the point of their graduation,” Ajiboye said.

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