Napo slams press; calls them fake news producers

Minister for Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh also known as Napo appears to have lost his cool over media reports suggesting that his outfit will be issuing licence to qualified teachers before posting.

Speaking at the National Association of Graduate Teacher's (NAGRAT) 12th National Delegates Conference, the Minister denied ever commenting on teacher licences, describing such reportage as ‘mischievous work by fake news producers’.

‘Since I became a Minister, I have not on any public platform spoken anything about teacher licensing,” Dr Opoku Prempeh told the leadership of NAGRAT in Kumasi.

On August 15, The Ghanaian Times reported that the National Teachers Council (NTC) of the Ministry of Education had announced that teachers will now have to pass a special examination before being granted a licence to teach.

The move, according to the NTC, as reported by the Ghanaian Times, is to enforce discipline and eliminate non-performing teachers from the system, in accordance with the new Teachers Licencing Policy under the Education Act 778 (2008).

The Ghanaian Times also reported that Dr. Augustine Tawiah, Executive Secretary-designate of the National Teaching Council of the Ministry of Education, disclosed the new policy in Accra at the closing ceremony of a five-day intensive in-service training workshop for teachers in the Greater Accra Region.

However, Dr Opoku Prempeh said on Wednesday, 30 August 2017 at the NAGRAT Conference that the story was cooked up out of mischief.

“The mischievousness of the press, we should all see. Go and check the dailies, 3 August 2014, national teaching council executive secretary makes a statement on teacher licensing. I’m happy all the unions say they are being engaged for a long time,” the Minister said.

He clarified that: “Actually the council of the national teaching council was formed just about three weeks ago. How could it have been that the council says that they are starting teacher deployment? It is not true. But if we believe everything fake news producers will put out there, we would insult ourselves to death.”