Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education
Teachers already on the field who will fail the yet to be introduced license examination will be demoted as part of measures to streamline the profession, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has revealed.
“You will be in trouble that is why every time we advise you, teachers, to upgrade yourselves in the knowledge you are teaching”.
“You qualification is questioned now or going to be questioned”, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service, Reverend Jonathan Betty revealed.
“Whatever you do and any professions that you engage yourself in you need in-service training, upgrading and updating yourself in everything”, the PRO pointed out during a radio interview.
“If Ghana as a country needed education standard to be very high then the implementers or the people who impart the knowledge must also be high in their standard”, Jonathan Betty stated.
The National Teachers Council (NTC) at the Ministry of Education gave the hint that teachers in the future must pass a special examination before being granted license to teach.
But various teacher unions in the country are up in arms with government over plans to introduce license examination to certify teachers before they are allowed to teach in various schools throughout the country.
The Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana National Association (GNAT) have both kicked against the policy describing it as unnecessary.
Christian Addai-Poku, President of NAGRAT believes the policy is unnecessary stating that the University of Cape Coast and University (UCC) of Education, Winneba (UEW) have been mandated by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure that teachers churned out of various teacher training Colleges in the country meet the standards.
According to him, there are guidelines governing teacher education in the country and none of the institutions mandated to train teachers have gone contrary in view of the fact that there are supervisory roles played by the two universities in that respect.
