About 12,279 teachers practicing without certification - NTC

The National Teaching Council (NTC) has revealed that a whopping 12,279 teachers practicing in the country have no proper certification to operate.

In a report by graphic.com.gh on June 1, 2026, NTC signalled an intensified enforcement drive to sanitise the country's education sector, warning that more than 100,000 non-professional teachers currently operating in basic and private schools face removal if they fail to regularise their status.

According to the council, the high volume of unqualified personnel in classrooms poses a severe threat to the quality of national education, with the crisis heavily concentrated in vulnerable rural communities.

Francis Addae, the NTC Director in charge of Teacher Licensing, disclosed these figures during a special matriculation ceremony for the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) program at the Catholic University of Ghana (CUG).

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Addae revealed that a recent compliance audit conducted across second-cycle institutions exposed a glaring deficit: roughly 12,279 graduate teachers are currently instructing students without the professional teaching certificates mandatory for legal licensing.

"The time will come when you may not be allowed to teach," Addae cautioned.

He emphasised that the NTC will eventually bar unregistered personnel from classrooms entirely.

To avert a mass purge, the NTC is urging uncertified educators to utilise the heavily subsidised PGDE window. While over 12,000 non-professional graduate teachers have been flagged at the Senior High School (SHS) level alone, Addae noted with concern that only 1,421 are currently enrolled in the remedial certification course nationwide.

To ease the financial burden of regularisation, the council has slashed the PGDE program fees from the standard range of GH¢8,000–GH¢9,000 down to GH¢5,000, with flexible installment options. Furthermore, female teachers aged 35 and below are eligible for additional financial assistance funded through the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP).

Speaking at the same event, CUG Vice-Chancellor Professor Daniels Obeng-Ofori reminded the fresh regularising students that teaching is not merely a job, but a noble vocation directly tasked with shaping national development.

VPO