Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has warned against any move to abolish the teacher licensure examination, stressing its importance in safeguarding quality standards in Ghana’s education system.
His comments come in the wake of a recent directive from the Ministry of Education, which instructed the National Teaching Council (NTC) to collaborate with its Registrar to organise a final sitting under the current licensure framework by August 30.
The directive, issued by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu during the inauguration of the newly constituted NTC board on Tuesday, July 15, is part of a broader plan to transition to a new system for assessing teacher qualifications.
Appearing on The Point of View on Channel One TV on Wednesday, July 16, Mr. Asare clarified that the teacher licensure exam has not been scrapped and remains vital for quality assurance.
“Teacher Licensure examination hasn’t been abolished. It’s still very relevant, and for me, we need it for quality assurance. If we abolish that particular examination conducted by that external body, we will be admitting many people whom I reviewed their scripts personally, who couldn’t put together a sentence in English,” he said.
He stressed the need for the exam to remain under an independent body to ensure its credibility and objectivity.
“They will be admitting all of them to our classrooms, and that would be a disaster. So, we need the Teacher Licensure Exams. The fact that it is conducted by an independent body and not the faculty it’s very important,” he added.
Mr. Asare’s remarks come at a time of growing debate over the future of the teacher licensure regime, with calls for reform from some stakeholders and student-teachers who have criticised the exam’s structure and outcomes.
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