Licence exams must be part of teacher training – Kwesi Pratt

The Ghana Education Service has indicated that there will soon be an introduction of licence for teachers in the country.

The licence has become necessary to rectify the poor teaching skills of teachers.

“They are too bad to be recognized as teachers that is why the licencing is coming,” Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Reverend Jonathan Betty disclosed.

In order to acquire the licence, exams will be conducted for the teachers to assess their performance.

According to the GES PRO, all professional entities in the country sit for licensing examination after school before they are allowed to practice.

“Nurses are licensed and there are few others that are also licensed before they are recognized…If Ghana as a country needed education standard to be high the implementers or the people who impart the knowledge must also be in high standard,” he added.

Commenting on the issue on ‘Kokrokoo’ on Peace FM, the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper expressed disagreement with the initiative.

Mr. Pratt wondered why teachers will have to sit for exams before they get a licence to practice.

To him, the exams should form part of the training the teachers gain from their various training institutions and so it’s needless for them to do another exams to be licenced.

“If there’s an exam that if you don’t write and pass, you can’t teach; it should be part of teacher training,” Pratt said.

Though he admitted that the licensing is a good policy, the Education Ministry and GES should not implement it without the consent of GNAT, NAGRAT and other teacher associations in the country.

He called on the Ministry and GES to consult with the teacher associations to find ways to initiate the licensing policy.