Babatunji Wusu –
3,963 instructors sat the Professional Qualifying Examination (PQE) in November 2023, but the instructors Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has revealed that the exam was not passed.
It is estimated by the TRCN that this represents about 27.1% of the candidates who took the test.
Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, the Registrar of the TRCN, revealed the details on Monday in an interactive session with media in Abuja, according to Naija News.
Ajiboye underlined that the exam’s goal was to evaluate teachers’ professional competence in the field of education.
He stated, “A total of 15,753 sat the examination at 38 centres across the country. Out of this, we have 10,636 that passed which is about 72.9 per cent and those that failed are 3,963.”
Ajiboye expressed his dissatisfaction with the cancellation of results for applicants who engaged in exam misconduct as well as the absence of other candidates throughout the exam.
He gave his word that the council will continue to work toward improving the teaching profession in Nigeria.
Prof. Abayomi Fasina, the vice chancellor of Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), has meantime pleaded with the government to take into account raising the pay scale for academic staff members nationwide.
According to him, a Nigerian professor ought to make at least N1 million a month.
This was said by the University Don last weekend during an occasion in Oye Ekiti.
Following his discussion on a number of topics pertaining to education, Prof. Fasina stated that he agreed with the Federal Government’s decision to exempt public universities from the IPPIS (Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System).
He thinks the move will provide colleges more independence and better capacity to run their operations.
The Vice Chancellor emphasized that leaving the IPPIS would have the benefit of enabling the varieties to decide on their own how best to run the system.
“The advantage is that we are now independent to decide on proper management of the system. We can always also take from our IGR to supplement what we are given by the government,” Fasina said on the IPPIS.
He added: “Another advantage is that we want the government to increase our salary, and with this development, we can subsidise such increments with our IGR. We are currently poorly paid as lecturers in Nigerian universities. For example, a professor should not earn less than a million naira.
“This development will save us a lot of trouble of running to Abuja to get approval for so many things we can easily handle on our own. Such things as recruitment and others. We have the autonomy now and we can manage our system efficiently on our own.
“There is so much bureaucracy in IPPIS which gives us so much headache. We have some of our staff members who have not collected their salary for many months now because of that bureaucracy. We have a situation where a former VC who went on sabbatical was denied his salaries on return for several months due to the bottlenecks of IPPIS.”
