A group calling itself the Teachers and Trainees Advocacy (TTA) is appealing to the National Teaching Council (NTC) to extend the deadline for registration of the upcoming teacher licensure exams.
Newly trained teachers in the country are expected to take part in the exams before they could be licensed to teach in the country.
The deadline for the registration is today, May 31, 2019, but the teachers’ advocacy group said they’ve received complaints that some of the teachers struggle to access the online application portal including those in deprived areas.
[contextly_sidebar id=”wIQQN0W60ulDv6OtORIqC62NYV5Qqe7g”]The group in a statement dated May 27, 2019 said the extension will allow such people an opportunity to register for the exams.
TTA in the statement signed by its National Convener, Patrick Antwi Karikari and Director of Publicity, Bernard Sao commended the NTC for adopting the online application system for registration of this year’s exams but urged the Council to ensure that new teachers are not deprived the opportunity to take part in the exercise.
“The National Teaching Council has taken a step further to license all teachers in the Country through an online application [system]. TTA appreciates the quick thinking of NTC, for not stressing teachers with long queues before getting the registration done. Nevertheless, TTA has received several complains on the difficulties one encounters in filling the online forms and for that reason, we placed a call to the NTC office and consequently, we are credibly informed that there is an updated version of the app available on play store which will better enhance the registration this time.”
“Teachers are by that means, informed to download the updated app to enable them undertake this exercise successfully as the deadline draws near. The leadership of TTA passionately appeals to the NTC through the Executive Secretary, Mrs Evelyn Oduro to extend the deadline said to be on 31st May 2019, to advantageously aid the teachers working at the deprived areas,” TTA added in the statement.
The licensure examination was initially resisted fiercely by some teacher unions and a section of the newly trained teachers who threatened to hit the streets in protest in 2018.
While the trainees accused the NTC of devising means to deny them employment, the teacher unions described the timetable for the conduct of the examination as “hastily put together”.
Out of the 28,757 teachers who wrote the examination in 2018, 21,287, representing 74 per cent, passed, while 7,470 failed.
Below is the full statement from the TTA:
