College of Education teachers react to NDC’s move to abolish GTLE

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) after National Democratic Congress flagbearer, John Mahama said he would cancel the Ghana teacher licensure examination when elected as president in 2024 has said the decision is a step in the wrong direction.

Citing the importance of the national examination conducted for graduate teacher trainees, CETAG said the Ghana teacher licensure examination plays a crucial role in ensuring quality in the profession hence it should not be cancelled.

The President of CETAG, Prince Obeng Himah in an interview with Citi FM monitored by Thisterm.com said the teacher licensure examination was very significant in ensuring the competence and quality of teaching professionals.

“In my opinion, it is something that is good and it shouldn’t be cancelled. That is CETAG, we have stated that we should implement what we agreed two years ago when we had a conference that the students wanting to enter the teaching profession should be subjected to entrance exams,” he said.

Meanwhile, Africa Education Watch reacting to Mahama’s decision says it supports the licensing of teachers, and any approach used in training and licensing teachers provided it is heavy on quality assurance on the teaching standards.

Director of EduWatch, Kofi Asare in a post said “I think the NTC’s licensure exam approach which the NDC piloted is great, even though there are issues with assessment validity, which reason why a government committee has been looking into its possible reform.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to scrap the Ghana teacher licensure examination (not teacher licensing) and the mandatory national service for teachers as far back as in its 2020 manifesto.

While they gave some good reasons & alternatives when we met their manifesto committee in 2020, the onus lies on the NDC to explain their superior-in-quality-assurance alternative to the current teacher licensure examination approach to teacher licensing to the public

What we must be interested in is how the licensing process can be improved in quality assurance and relevance of assessment, leading to the licensing. Whatever NDC promises must add value to the Ghana teacher licensing.”