By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Federal Government has commenced preparations to train 250,000 serving teachers who lack professional teaching qualifications, under a new initiative known as the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway (ATPP).
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday, 11 September, 2026 by the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), which said it had been mandated to coordinate the six-month programme under the supervision of the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa.
According to the statement, the ATPP is aimed at professionalising non-professional teachers and bridging their qualification gaps, a move designed to address what the NTI described as a long-standing structural weakness in Nigeria’s basic education system.
The institute explained that the situation had long concerned policymakers and stakeholders, as a significant number of teachers had been teaching without professional qualifications, with some neither licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) nor meeting the standards enforced by the council.
The NTI, led by its Director and Chief Executive, Prof Sadiya Sani Daura, has been designated as the coordinating secretariat for the programme.
It will work alongside the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the TRCN, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other relevant institutions, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.
The statement noted that the programme was designed to fill the existing gap without phasing out affected teachers from the classroom, stating that it would instead empower and professionalise them.
The ATPP will be delivered through two routes: the Postgraduate Diploma in Education, for serving teachers holding degrees in non-education disciplines, and the Professional Diploma in Education, for those entering from the National Diploma cadre.
Both routes will combine self-paced digital content, virtual facilitated sessions, structured assessment checkpoints and supervised teaching practice.
Unlike simulated training arrangements, teaching practice under the programme will be verified in the teachers’ own schools, and the NTI said it would deliver the programme through existing mandated institutions rather than establish a parallel project unit.
According to the statement, academic preparations have substantially been completed, with curriculum frameworks for both routes reviewed, validated and finalised.
Module development was undertaken by a national panel of about 40 content experts drawn from universities, colleges of education and relevant agencies, including the NTI, TRCN, NSSEC, UBEC and NERDC.
The programme architecture has also been mapped across the federal, state and local government levels, while outstanding work includes the digital curriculum delivery flow, the teaching practice component and engagement with partner institutions.
Explaining the blended approach, the NTI said it was being adopted by necessity, combining virtual and physical components, rather than by preference.
The design will place four components in a repeating cycle across each module to ensure teachers do not progress solely on the strength of digital technology.
The institute will coordinate curriculum development, content management and quality assurance of deliverables in collaboration with UBEC and the Steering Committee.
The ATPP will run for six months, comprising four months of intensive instruction and two months of teaching practice.
Emphasising the importance of the practical component, the statement read, “The teaching practice component is most likely to determine whether the pathway produces a change in the classroom or merely a change in paperwork.”
The practicum will involve structured teaching practice, mentor and supervisor protocols, as well as documented evidence of lessons, pupils’ work and supervisor sign-offs.
The NTI said the programme would provide a credible, affordable and time-bound route for serving teachers without teaching qualifications to obtain TRCN-recognised professional status.
The media communication strategy for the programme was deliberated by the Sub-Committee on Media and Communication, headed by the Executive Secretary of the NSSEC, Dr Iyela Ajayi, with the NTI represented by its Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Mal. Yusha’u Ahmed.
The Federal Government is expected to launch the ATPP in October 2026, as part of efforts under the Renewed Hope Agenda to strengthen teacher quality and improve learning outcomes across the country.
