TRCN Boss Canvasses High Post UTME Cut-off Marks For Prospective Varsity, College Students

The Chief Executive of Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) Professor Josiah Ajiboye has canvassed for high post utme Cut-off marks for prospective students seeking to study education related courses in colleges of education and faculties of education in the universities.

Ajiboye who is also the Registrar of the Council said the current practice of making the cut-off marks for education courses lower to courses in other academic fields such as Medicine, Engineering and Law is dangerous for the future of the country.

The TRCN boss who made the disclosure recently, said the practice is not in any way advantageous to quality education, nor the teaching profession in the country.

He said teachers ought to be among the best and not the dregs in the society since they produce other professionals and also reproduce themselves.

Ajiboye who is a professor of Social Studies, Civic and Environmental Education, also said it is high time the country reviewed its teacher education policy and programmes to produce teachers for the 21st century.

According to him, the rest of the world is not waiting for Nigeria, and so professional training of teachers is critical, just as mastery of subjects, teachers’ welfare and good environment that promote learning are equally important.

He said rebuilding the education system would require that the teaching profession would not only attract the best brains across levels of education, but also retain them.

He said adequate investment in education and, especially human capital development should be the priority of government at all levels so as to grow the country’s economy appreciably.

He said TRCN would continue to pursue its mandate of stamping out quackery and ensuring that only professional teachers are employed both for government and private schools in the country.