The Director-General, of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) Kaduna, Prof. Musa Maitafsir says the Institute has plans to introduce a mandatory one-year Teacher Internship Programme by January 2024.
Maitafsir made this known on Thursday in Abuja, at a news conference to mark the 2023 World Teachers’ Day with the theme ‘ The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage ‘.
The day has been observed annually on October 5 since 1994 to commemorate the adoption of the 1996 ILO/UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of teachers.
The day also focuses on the rights, responsibilities, and standards of teachers’ initial preparation and further education, recruitment, and employment.
According to Maitafsir, for teaching to be fully professionalized in Nigeria, there is a need for such a compulsory internship programme for the teachers.
“The programme will ensure that only individuals that have passed through it would be licensed and called ‘Teachers’ and then be allowed to practice the profession,” he said.
He explained that the programme was initiated in compliance with Section ‘C’ subsection (1), page 21 of the National Teacher Education Policy (NTEP) (2014), and the internship programme would be introduced in partnership with the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).
Maitafsir said that the internship was a mandatory programme that is expected to last for one year for the holders of NCE, B.ed, PGDE, M.ed, and Ph.D. in the education sector.
“After graduation from any Teacher Education Programmes, every new teacher shall be registered by the TRCN after at least one year of successful Internship and Mentoring to qualify for a license.”
“One year is similar to Internship Programmes of other professions like Law and Medicine.
“This will be operated in two diets, March and November of each year before or after the commencement of NYSC by those with Degree Certificates,” he said.
The D-G said that all the interns would pay an application fee of N7,000 and an internship fee of N50,000.
Maitafsir, however, said that the programme would only apply to would-be teachers and not to those that have already been inducted by TRCN and given its certificate.
He said that the programme would acquaint the ‘Trainee-Teachers’ with the practical knowledge of trashing and the learning process.
“They include E- e-facilitation and teacher integration in teaching skills, psycho-principles of commitment of teaching, and delivery and retention techniques.
“Others are aesthetics and conventional wrong skills, entrepreneurship education skills, and monthly teachers’ acculturation lectures,” the D-G added.
According to him, on the success of the programme, the trainees will be awarded a ‘Teacher Internship Certificate’ that will qualify them for TRCN ‘Induction and Certification’.
He added that the programme would be run at the Institute’s headquarters in Kaduna and the six geopolitical zones in the country, and noted that the programme would go a long way in advancing teaching and learning in Nigeria.
“It will certainly help in producing highly motivated, efficient, and effective teachers for our schools.
“FME, NTI, TRCN, and all other relevant stakeholders should have their hands on deck to ensure successful implementation of the programme as enshrined in NTEP.
“The teaching profession in Nigeria had over the years been intruded on by unqualified individuals making it an all-comers job and just a stepping stone to other jobs.
“There is a need to ensure that only qualified individuals are engaged as teachers to teach in schools,” Maitafsir said.
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