MoE schools NDC on ‘teachers’ who write teacher licensure exams

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has schooled the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the type of teachers who write the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) administered by the National Teaching Council (NTC).

This comes after NDC’s flagbearer and former President, John Dramani Mahama at his party’s manifesto launch in Winneba on Saturday, August 24, 2024, said his next government will cancel the obnoxious licensure examination for teachers and teacher trainee graduates

Reacting to Dramani Mahama’s promise to abolish GTLE for teachers and teacher trainee graduates, a Deputy spokesman for the Education Ministry, Yaw Opoku Mensah said the former president’s briefings on education matters are weak.

“For the records, teachers do not write license exams. To emphasize it clearly, no teacher has ever written for a license. License is only written by prospective or would-be teachers or personnel seeking to join the profession.

There should be a good team of specialists who follow and understand the current trend for proper analysis and alternative discussions if any,” the Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Education said in a social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com.

A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Education Manifesto Committee, Dr Prince Hamid Armah on his part explained that in-service teachers in the country are not required to write the NTC teacher licensure examination

“Someone should inform our colleagues on the other side that no in-service teacher in Ghana is required to write licensure exams—every teacher was grandfathered into the licensing regime and granted a license without the need for exams. Claiming they’ll scrap something that doesn’t even exist demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the policy landscape of the subject matter

The quality of our current teacher licensure regime, with licensure examinations as its cornerstone, has earned international recognition, enabling Ghanaian teachers to secure employment in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom without additional licensing requirements—a significant improvement from past practices

Since 2018, Ghana has consistently been recognized on the global stage, participating in the Global Teachers Prize and ranking in the top 10 twice and the top 50 twice

Additionally, Ghana has dominated the African Union Teacher Prize, winning it every year since 2019. Any attempt by the NDC to abolish the licensure exams for pre-service teachers would not only compromise the quality of our profession but also diminish the international recognition they currently enjoy,” he said in a social media post.

the former National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) Director-General in his post on Facebook added “I am eagerly looking forward to debating the Chairman of the NDC’s Education Manifesto Committee

This will be an immediate opportunity to highlight how their education manifesto has repeated many of our policy proposals and to clearly demonstrate why the NPP’s approach remains the most effective, and superior in securing the future of education in Ghana.”