CHAPTER FOUR

DISCIPLINE & PUNISHMENT

4.1 TEACHERS CODE OF CONDUCT

The Council has published a Teachers Code of Conduct (TCC) to define the minimum ethical standards expected of professional teachers. The TCC is given free of charge to teachers at the point of registration. It forecloses the possibility that any teacher will claim ignorance of what constitutes virtues or vices in the discharge of his professional duty. With the establishment of the Code, the Council will exercise its disciplinary functions on erring teachers through the :

(i) Teachers Investigation Panel (TIP)

(ii)Teachers Disciplinary Committee (TDC)

4.2 TEACHERS INVESTIGATION PANEL (TIP)

The Act in section 9 established the Teachers Investigation Panel. The Panel, according to the Act, shall be appointed by the Governing Council after consultation with State Ministries and Department of Education Federal Capital Territory. It shall consist of five members, one of whom shall be a legal practitioner. The Teachers Investigation Panel shall be set up in all the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory .

Section 11(1) of the Act makes it mandatory for the heads of educational institutions to report any case of misconduct by a registered teacher. Parents, colleagues, students and the general public equally have a duty report cases of professional misconduct to the Panel.

Generally, the modus operandi of the Panel involves the following procedures:

(i) Conducting a preliminary investigation into any case where it is alleged that a member has misbehaved in his capacity as a teacher;

(ii) The teacher so affected shall be informed by the Panel that an allegation has been made against him and shall be invited to respond to it;

(iii) Where the Panel establishes evidence of misconduct it shall refer the case to the Teachers Disciplinary Committee.

4.3 TEACHERS DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE (TDC)

Section 9 of the TRCN Act also provided for the existence of the TDC. It states that the Committee shall consist of the Chairman of the Governing Council and ten other members appointed by the Council. Schedule 2 of the TRCN Act, specifies that:

•  The quorum of the Committee shall be four of whom at least two shall be registered members.

•  The Attorney General of the Federation shall make rules as to the selection of members of the Committee for the purposes of any proceedings and as to the procedure to be followed and the rules of evidence to be observed in the procedures before the Committee.

•  For the purposes of any proceedings before the Committee, any member of the Committee may administer oaths and any party to the proceedings may sue out of the registry of the High Court wrist of subpoena and testificandum and duces tecum

•  For the purpose of advising the Committee on questions of law arising in proceedings before it, there shall in all such proceedings be an assessor to the Committee who shall be appointed by the Council on the nomination of the Attorney-General of the Federation and shall be a legal practitioner of no less than seven years standing.

To underscore the power of the Committee as sharing in the powers of a High Court, the Act in addition to the provisions above stated in section 10(4) that a teacher convicted may within twenty eight days of the conviction appeal to the Court of Appeal against the decision of the Committee and the Committee may appear as respondent to the appeal. The Committee therefore is according to the Act a tribunal or jury of very high standing that should be taken seriously by teachers. The Medical Tribunal set up by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria is a most applicable example. Frequently the nation witnesses the trial of medical doctors who committed acts of professional misconducts, like negligence leading to the death of patients, etc. The same will now be the case for teachers.

The Committee's primary assignment is to consider and determine cases referred to it by the Teachers Investigation Panel. According to section 10(1) of the Act, such cases may include where:

•  a member is charged with infamous conduct in any professional respect (as contained in the Teachers Code of Conduct or elsewhere).

•  a member is convicted, by any court or committee in

Nigeria or elsewhere having power to award imprisonment, of an offence (whether or not punishable with imprisonment) which in the opinion of the Committee is incompatible with the status of a teacher;

(iii) the name of any person has been fraudulently registered or a member has made false claims in his registration documents.

On the conviction of a teacher against any of the category of offences stated above, the Committee can give directives for:

(i). Advice

(ii) Reprimand

(iii) Suspension of registration

(iv) Cancellation of registration

•  Criminal prosecution in accordance with the relevant laws of the country.

Chapter 5