Teachers education reforms and its implications on the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination

Following a comprehensive review of the educational system, diploma was

introduced in 2004 at the Teacher Training Colleges and the first batch of diploma trainees graduated in 2007. The Ghana Education Service aligned its recruitment and selection systems to sync with the expectation of the new reforms at that era.

Going forward, the MOE/GES together with Teacher unions, and the Universities initiated steps for all 'Certificate A' teachers to upgrade and graduate with diploma certificate through top-up programmes.

In October 2018, all 46 public CoEs commenced the delivery of the B.Ed. programme with specialisation in Early Grade, Primary Education and Junior High Education to provide trainee teachers with a more practical hands-on teaching experience.

To enable holders of Diploma certificates upgrade to the required degree qualifications, the Institute of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, and the Teacher unions in 2020 introduced the 3 semester Bachelor of Education programmes.

These modification in teacher training and education curriculum created the need for the universities to tailor their teacher education courses to align with the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework (NTCF).

Owing to the transformation and restructuring of the teacher education system which has birthed the need for specialisation in degree in education programmes to be used as a preferred option in the recruitment and selection of teachers, the National Teaching Council has been emboldened to adjust its licensure examination to satisfy the current policy.

The first batch of trainees in the Colleges of Education completed their Bachelor of Education in 2022 and since 2019, Universities have upgraded their teacher education programmes to include degree in education (with three tier specialization levels)

The 2023 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination takes into account the Teacher Education Reforms and this explains why the eligibility of the subject based GTLE has been restricted to candidates with Bachelor of Education or Postgraduate Diploma in education certificate.