Teacher licensure certificate is not ‘yardstick’ for recruitment – GES
The fact that a tertiary graduate had sat and passed the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination and has been awarded a teacher licensure certificate does not mean he/she will be recruited into service, the Ghana Education Service has said.
Describing the teacher licensure certificate as a requirement for recruitment, the Ghana Education Service says that the document does not guarantee a university graduate will be recruited into service to teach as a teacher in the country.
Speaking in an interview monitored by Pretertiary.com, a former GES Director-General, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwah said recruitment of university graduate teachers is done based on the subject vacancy availability in Senior High School
“We have said before you can teach in any school as a teacher, you must have an NTC licensure certificate, so if you passed the teacher licensure examination you can submit an application for GES recruitment,” the Professor stated.
Professor Opoku Amankwa speaking on the Accra-based UTV ‘Mpu ne Mpu’ show expressed worry over mistakes made by some public tertiary graduates saying “They sometimes submit the wrong application for recruitment.”
“So if we (GES) say we are recruiting teachers specialized in Geography, you will see the application of those specialized in Home Economics,” the former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service told the host of UTV’s Mpue ne Mpu show.
In a related development, NTC has announced the end of December this year as the deadline for about 30,000 non-professional teachers at the pre-tertiary level to obtain the appropriate teaching registration and licensing.
Speaking to Daily Graphic, Registrar of NTC, Dr Christian Addai Poku said the non-professional teachers are bachelor’s degree and non-bachelor’s degree holders, who were recruited before the introduction of the licensure regime in 2018.
He said that under a new arrangement, degree holders are required to enrol in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme at an accredited teacher education university to be issued a teacher’s registration and licence upon successful completion of the programme.
“This fast-track programme will last for 16 weeks and shall be exclusive for those who were teachers before September 30, 2018
All other categories of untrained teachers are required to attend a one-week Booth Camp training in designated institutions and be issued permanent registration upon successful completion of the training
This shall be exclusive for those who were teachers before September 30, 2018,” the Registrar of the National Teaching Council, Dr Christian Addai-Poku, told the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview in Accra.
Dr Addai-Poku reminded the affected teachers to take advantage of the opportunity because those who do not upgrade themselves before the end of December 2024 will be required to take the Ghana teacher licensure examination.
