The Federal Government on Thursday announced that secondary schools with unqualified teachers will not be allowed to serve as examination centres for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations from 2027.
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In a policy directive issued on September 11, 2025, and addressed to the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, directed teachers to obtain the necessary certification.
The directive stated: “The Federal Ministry of Education has directed that, in line with government policy to strengthen professionalism in the teaching profession, the accreditation of both public and private secondary schools for the conduct of public examinations — WASSCE, NABTEB, NECO and NBIAS — shall henceforth be contingent on the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) certification of teachers engaged in such schools.”
It will be recalled that in 2023, the TRCN declared that about 70 per cent of teachers in some regions of the country were unqualified, raising serious concerns among education stakeholders.
The Minister’s directive specifically declared: “Accordingly, effective from March 2027 for WASSCE, May 2027 for NABTEB, June 2027 for NECO, and June 2027 for SAISSCE, any school whose teachers are not duly registered and licensed with the TRCN shall be disqualified from serving as an examination centre.”
Dr. Alausa further stated in the memo: “State governments are therefore requested to take due cognisance of this directive and put in place necessary measures to ensure that all teachers in state-owned secondary schools and private secondary schools obtain the requisite TRCN certification within the stipulated two years from the date of this policy directive.”
He added that compliance would be closely monitored, with schools expected to achieve a minimum compliance rate of 75 per cent by 2026 and full compliance of 100 per cent by 2027.
The directive also noted: “Teachers who are non-education graduates but possess not less than 12 months of classroom teaching experience are encouraged to enrol in the abridged professional certification programme offered through the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI).”
The programme, it was explained, “consists of short professional courses lasting between three and six months, after which participants will qualify for TRCN registration and licensing.”
Reports and surveys in the public domain suggest that many teachers in private schools in Nigeria today are also unqualified, with stakeholders stressing that the recruitment of unqualified teachers has remained a persistent, age-long problem affecting students’ learning outcomes.
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