Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh
We have a saying in our local parlance that, the executioner fears the blade. This saying is what is playing out between the Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh and various teacher unions, over his proposed license exams.
Teachers examine their students every day, without any complaints, the only time that, a proposal is put forth to examine them, hell has broken loose and they are running scared and wild.
They is a licensing exams for most professions in this country and in most clime, example Lawyers write exams to be called to the bar, doctors, also write council and dental council exams, paying close to 1000 Ghana cedis to qualify to practice.
People, who are trained outside the country and want to practice their trade in the above mentioned professions, write an exam before they are given the license or certificate to practice.
We have different professional bodies, which require that people, who are interested in practicing or want to associate with that profession, sit for their exam. Licesing is the only way to ensure and maintain some sanity and standards.
A lot of organizations ask prospective recruits to write aptitude test before they are considered for employment. This is after they have completed university, polytechnics or institutions of higher learning. Teachers must not see the licesing test as a punishment, if only the really do care about the future of the students, they are churning out.
We are averse to change in this country; we will kick against anything that will disturb our natural ‘habitat’. Teaching will not be the first profession in this country, whose members, will be examine before they practice.
Most, if not all of these teachers crying foul, enjoyed the golden opportunities that, attending a public school, has to offer. Today public schools are left for the children of the poor, when that used not to be the situation in the past.
I will agree with them that, asking teachers to sit for license exam, is not the solution to the falling standard of education in this country. A lot need to be done, but we to start from somewhere.
We still have schools that could not survive the test of the medieval ages. A lot of the public schools lack basic learning and living amenities.
Some have no libraries, no laboratories, no computers, no books, no desks, no hygienic environment, no modern healthcare facilities and no sporting facilities. With everything lacking, it is doubtful that any serious learning takes place in these schools. However, they must graduate pupils every year to go from one stage to another.
A lot of the schools do not even have relevant and up to date curricula for the modern age. In this kind of setting, teachers will end up teaching the students nonsense.
Colleges of education are ill equipped, there is also infrastructure deficit in terms of students’ ratio, and the list and endless. . It is often said that man is a product of his environment.
But in curing a sickness, you first attack the symptom. All the above can be made available, if the teachers are poorly trained, nothing good will come out of their product. In teaching, just like most things in life, what you sow is what you reap.
Interestingly, some public schools are better and well equipped than private schools, yet because of effective supervision the product that come out of the private schools are far better than public schools. One of the major problems the minister of Education and his ministry must pay critical attention to is supervision.
Supervisors, who are paid to ensure that teachers stay in school and prepare lesson notes, as well as follow and complete syllables, are mostly themselves absent.
Going to school for certification is one thing and taking board exams to practice is another, the licesing exam, will afford the country the opportunity to separate those who genuinely want to teach from those who see the profession as a last resort or as a springboard.
The outcry by the various teacher unions, is symptomatic of a Ghanaian, they are either afraid to face the same fate, their students go through every day or that, the exams will expose most of them.
We know that, college of education is the last option many students will choose, when they complete Senior High School. It only becomes necessary when they fail to secure admission into the University.
So those who eventually end up becoming teachers are mostly half baked. Which serious country, will gloss over this monumental truth and just accept anybody, who by virtue of attending and completing teacher training college by becoming a teacher.
They are complaining of the money they have to pay to take the exams. This is ridiculous because of even nurses who renew the PIN every year, pay for it. This is not new and teachers wont certainly be the first to pay to write a licensing exam.
If the salary of teachers is not good, the government must also look at motivation. We can’t expect them to perform magic for the future generation of this country, when they are left to retire in misery ad penury.
What we pay for is what we get, when we pay them well, they will give off their best. After all, it is said that if you pay peanuts, you attract monkeys
We must begin to pay serious attention to the quality of education we give our children. Education is the most important gift we can bequeath our young ones. It is the instrument they need to navigate the challenges of the future. An educated mind they say, is a liberated mind.
