The teachers who failed the license examination are not professionals who are already in classroom teaching, the Executive Secretary of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST – Ghana) Peter Partey-Anti, has said.
He said these are people who completed teacher training institutions and per the laws, are required to write the licensure examination before they can be given a provisional license as teachers.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Tuesday, June 20, Dr Parte-Anti explained that when one completes training at the teacher training institutions the person needs to write the licensure.
When the person writes the exams and passes then he will be given a provisional license.
“Till you are given the provisional license you cannot call yourself a teacher, you are a pre-service teacher or a teacher trainee,” he said.
He added “These ones are not people who are already teaching our kids, that is an important point to make so people don’t think that teachers that are teaching our kids have this kind of challenge. They are not teachers who are in the classroom, they want to enter the teaching profession but the systems and mechanisms we have put in place are helping us to seive some of these people who are preventing them from entering the classrooms to impact knowledge.”
Over 6000 teachers failed the licensure examination last month, the Registrar of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE), Dr. Christian Addai-Poku, revealed on Tuesday June 20.
Out of the 7,728 prospective teachers who sat for the licensure examination last month, only 1,277 passed, he said.
Speaking to TV3 he stated that the National Teaching Council (NTC) will continue to ensure that the right calibre of persons stay in the classroom to teach.
“As a council, I think it is a worry to the whole nation but the fact still remains that we need the right calibre of people in our classrooms and we cannot afford to compromise on quality. Let me also underscore the examination that was written recently was exclusively for re-sitters some of whom have written the examination five times, 8 times 10 times and they have still not been successful,” he said.
He added “So currently, we are phasing out what we call the traditional Ghana Teacher Licensure examination and bringing in a new one, we are reforming it.
“So in the course of the reforms, we decided that fresh candidates were not required to write this licensure examination so we limited it exclusively to re-sitters, 7000 people who have been writing the exams and have not passed. When the results came it was not different from the previous records, they still could not make it.
“Some people are just not capable of passing and I think they are not cut out for the teaching profession, they might be very good in other areas but might not be very good in the art of teaching and so they may have to redirect their energies to other areas. Other than that they would have to do more to demonstrate to everybody that they are fit for the purpose of teaching.”
Asked whether they have any other opportunity to rewrite the papers, Dr Addai-Poku said “There are two options open to them, they have one chance to write the exam in November, which will be the last chance for the traditional licensure examination. If they are not able to pass then there is still a door open for them. The opening is that if the person is already a degree holder in 2024 they can register the new system and write.
“The minimum qualification to teach in Ghana now is a degree so from 2024 if you don’t have a degree you cannot write the Ghana Teacher Lisvenure examination.”
