NTI admissions cancelled: what applicants and current students need to know

What happened

The Federal Ministry of Education has cancelled all 2026 admissions to the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, for its National Certificate in Education (NCE) and degree programmes.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said no further admissions to those programmes were permitted, whether full-time, part-time or through Distance Learning Studies. It told NTI to end all its university affiliations and degree-awarding arrangements, saying the institute is not authorised to award NCE or university degrees.

The ministry said NTI had breached operational guidelines it issued on 12 September 2025. NCE admissions must meet JAMB requirements and the accreditation standards of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), it said.

Why it matters

Anyone hoping to start an NTI NCE or degree course in 2026 can no longer be admitted. The ministry told prospective students and parents not to apply, accept admission offers or pay for the programmes.

The ministry’s completion safeguard applies only to eligible students already on NCE II–IV distance-learning programmes. The NCCE will assess those programmes and the study centres that run them across the six geopolitical zones; eligible students may complete their programmes, subject to the results and regulatory requirements.

The ministry said NTI’s mandate remains teacher training, retraining and professional development. That includes a three-to-six-month Special Abridged Programme for serving teachers with non-education degrees, which gives them the competencies needed to register with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

What happens next

The National Universities Commission (NUC) is to notify the affected universities and make sure NTI’s degree arrangements end, the ministry said.

The statement did not say when the NCCE accreditation will take place or how students will learn the results. It also did not say what happens to students already on degree programmes run with universities, or whether applicants who have paid for 2026 places will get their money back.

Sources: Federal Ministry of Education statement; Punch; Vanguard