The National Commission for Colleges of Education has commenced the implementation of its dual-mandate programme, targeting the production of 200,000 skilled and digitally certified teachers annually across the country.
The Executive Secretary of the NCCE, Dr Angela Ajala, disclosed this in Gombe on Thursday during a workshop for provosts of colleges of education in the North-East.
Ajala said the commission was engaging stakeholders across the geopolitical zones to identify peculiar challenges and ensure that colleges were adequately prepared for the implementation of the new teacher education framework.
She explained that the dual-mandate programme would enable students in colleges of education to obtain multiple qualifications, including the National Certificate in Education, a Bachelor of Arts degree and a skills certificate.
“Teacher education is not what it used to be; it has now changed. You enter a college of education now and get three certificates. You have an NCE, you get a BA, and you get a skill certificate,” she said.
Ajala said the addition of the skills component was aimed at strengthening teachers’ economic resilience and equipping them with entrepreneurial abilities beyond classroom teaching.
She explained that the initiative was designed to ensure that graduates could remain economically productive even when they were not immediately employed as teachers.
“We believe that if you have teachers that are skilled in a particular professional trade, it will build their economic resilience. So whether they get a job as a teacher or not, they will never go hungry,” Ajala said.
The NCCE boss said the new approach was also intended to produce teachers capable of identifying and solving problems in their communities rather than depending solely on white-collar employment.
According to Ajala, implementation of the dual mandate officially commenced in September 2026, with additional activities to be rolled out across colleges of education.
She said the programme would contribute to national development by producing teachers with professional, digital and practical skills to address challenges in their communities.
Ajala also announced the Teach Nigeria Forward campaign, which she said was designed to highlight the transformation taking place in the college of education system and support the recruitment of 200,000 teachers annually.
She said the target would translate to one million skilled and digitally certified teachers within five years.
“Because when we start that, which means in the next five years we have one million teachers that are skilled, digitally certified and are able to give back to their communities and their various states,” she said.
Ajala expressed confidence that teachers would adapt to the new system, describing the reforms as an opportunity to make graduates more employable and self-reliant.
“You don’t need to wait for [someone] to employ you. Don’t wait for the state government to employ you. You are employable on your own after this,” she said.
She said the next step after the North-East workshop would be the commencement of train-the-trainers workshops across colleges of education.
“These are going to happen across all the colleges for the implementation of the dual-mandate curriculum,” Ajala said.