The Minority in Parliament through the Select Committee on Education, has once again kicked against the teacher licensure exams, calling on the Education Ministry for its suspension.
The Minority has argued that the nature of the exams has become source worry to the teachers who after going through grueling training for four years, have to sit for another examination before authorize to practice what they have been trained to do.
It said the situation is frustrating, demoralizing, unfair, and adds some more bottlenecks to the lives of young Ghanaian teachers who willfully submitted themselves to serve the country through the teaching profession.
The statement which was issued by the Minority Spokesperson on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, said that the structure, duration and mode of training a teacher-trainee go through at the Colleges of Education cannot be underestimated as far as their professional competence is concerned.
He asked “Can a six-hour examination correct or rectify any inadequacies or inefficiencies in the teacher that a three-year programme of study could not correct”.
The MP for Akatsi North has also expressed worry that after the teacher-trainees have gone through a three-year programme, for four years and obtain a number of credits to qualify as teachers, “same person will be asked to sit for a six-hour aptitude test or examination to determine their professional competence.”
The National Teaching Council (NTC) an agency under the Ministry of Education in 2018 introduced the Teacher Licensure Examinations aimed at licensing teachers who teach or want to teach in public pre-tertiary schools in the country.
This according to the Ministry of Education is in fulfillment of Section 12(4) of the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) which states that “The programme of study for pre-tertiary teachers that lead to a license to teach shall be developed in consultation with the Council.”
But the minority insisted that the said Act is not recommending a separate examination to be conducted for the teachers after they have undergone a programme of study at the College of Education or a University accredited to offer teacher-training programmes.
Peter Nortsu-Kotoe further assured that, the next NDC government would consider making the struggles of teachers as far as the Licensure Examination is concerned as a thing of the past.
“As Minority, we wish to assure all teacher-trainees that we are with them in their struggle and wish to re-assure them that an NDC government on coming into office on 7th January, 2025 will consider the one-year off campus teaching as a national service period as well as making the Licensure Examination part of the credit hours they have to obtain as they go through the course of study to graduate as teachers.”
