Teachers across Nigeria are voicing deep frustration over persistent failures of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria digital registration portal, a system that was meant to modernise teacher licensing but has instead pushed many educators back to cumbersome manual processes.

The portal, launched with fanfare as a flagship reform under TRCN Registrar Dr Ronke Soyombo, was designed to allow teachers to register, renew licences and print certificates online, cutting out queues at banks and state offices. It was also promoted as a key plank in broader efforts to restore professionalism and integrity to the teaching profession.

On the ground, however, teachers say the platform has become a major obstacle. A primary school teacher in an Abuja Local Education Authority school, Femi Daniels, described spending days attempting to upload documents, only to be repeatedly blocked by error messages stating that he was not allowed to perform the action or should try again later.

Daniels added that when he attempted to purchase the required form at a commercial bank, it was unavailable, leaving him contemplating a 300-kilometre journey and significant transport costs just to complete registration. He warned that such hurdles are driving some teachers toward illegal shortcuts and fake certificates, recounting how a QR code scan once revealed mismatched names and registration details on a colleague’s document.

In Gombe, secondary school teacher Sadiq Kehinde questioned what had become of the substantial public funds reportedly invested in the platform, noting that officials had promised it would eliminate long-standing bureaucratic bottlenecks and allow teachers to complete processes from home.

Another secondary school teacher in Kurudu, Abuja, who requested anonymity, said delays in registration and certification are already affecting promotions, transfers and access to professional development. Some banks, he added, now insist that teachers must use the online system, even as the portal remains unreliable.

A coalition of concerned stakeholders, in a statement signed by Haliru Muhammed, said the portal has suffered persistent technical failures for months, leaving thousands of teachers stranded. Many have been forced back to manual registration at state TRCN offices, reintroducing the very delays and paperwork the digital system was meant to end.

The group urged the Soyombo-led TRCN to urgently resolve the technical problems and clarify the future of the portal, warning that prolonged disruption could undermine teacher credentialing, distort promotion timelines and fuel fraud in certification, with serious implications for education quality nationwide.