The Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) is ramping up initiatives to make its services more accessible to educators in rural communities, tackling persistent digital and infrastructural barriers faced by teachers outside major cities.
TRCN Registrar and Chief Executive Ronke Soyombo revealed these efforts during an interview on Tuesday in Abuja. She highlighted that many teachers, especially those in remote areas, struggle with digital platforms due to limited technological skills.
“Not all our teachers are IT-savvy,” Soyombo noted, emphasizing the importance of inclusive strategies. “If we are not inclusive, we are still joking,” she added.
To bridge this gap, the council has implemented a dual system allowing both online and offline access to its services, ensuring no educator is left behind.
“We have to make sure some can go online, and some can go offline,” she explained.
Soyombo said the council is bolstering its state offices to better support teachers without reliable internet or digital tools. As part of this, additional computers have been acquired specifically to assist those traveling from rural areas.
“I ordered another 20 computers so that we have enough resources in all our state offices that can attend to people coming from rural areas,” she stated.
She clarified that the support extends to any teacher needing help with TRCN processes, not just those in rural locations.
Partnership with the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has also proven effective in reaching educators at the grassroots level.
“They have representatives in every local government of Nigeria. This helps us access teachers more,” Soyombo said.
In addition to improving access, the council is working to uplift the overall quality of teaching resources across the country. Teachers selected from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones have produced thousands of lesson plans, which are now being validated to align with national curriculum standards and incorporate perspectives from both public and private school educators.
“We had about 60 teachers who had written over 5,000 lesson plans. Now we are validating them to ensure they meet curriculum standards and combine inputs from both public and private school teachers,” she disclosed.
The TRCN is also set to launch an AI-powered lesson planning platform designed to simplify and enhance teachers’ instructional delivery.
“We are here to make sure the standard gets better and to ease the work of our teachers,” Soyombo affirmed.
These developments follow the council’s digital transformation drive, which included the launch of its online portal on August 26, 2025. The platform was introduced to resolve previous delays in teacher certification and licensing.
According to TRCN statistics, more than 11,000 candidates have registered for the May 2026 Professional Qualifying Examination since late January 2026, while over 14,000 applicants have uploaded their credentials via the portal.
Since the portal’s introduction in 2025, over 40 million teachers nationwide have successfully registered, obtained licences, and been certified through the system.
The measures underscore TRCN’s commitment to equitable service delivery and improved teaching standards for all Nigerian educators.