Lagos — The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) has said it has developed a strategy to guide against the involvement of teachers in examination malpractice, cultism and other vices in schools.

Acting Registrar of the council, Mr Godwin Ogwuche, made the announcement in Abuja, in an interview.

He said the council had discovered that there were lots of collaborative efforts between teachers and students in exam fraud. "Teachers are found to be deeply involved in many cases of professional misconduct", he added. Ogwuche said some teachers had been found to be involved in cultism, which had negatively affected the profession.

He said the council had inaugurated investigative panels across the country to handle cases of professional misconduct among teachers. The panels, he added, had the mandate to investigate cases of misconduct and prescribe disciplinary actions against erring teachers.

Ogwuche said the council was focusing attention on how to ensure professionalism after achieving success in the registeration of teachers. He said the council had successfully registered some 700,000 teachers across the country. "Our target is to register 1.5 million teachers, but we have been able to get some 700,000 for now, which is a breakthrough," he added.

Ogwuche said the council was also making efforts to ensure that teachers obtained the required minimum qualification for teaching.

He said the council might consider penalising teachers who failed to avail themselves of the opportunity to obtain the National Certificate of Education (NCE), the minimum requirement for any teacher.