Education Minister hints new Ghana teacher licensure exam review

Measures are underway to review the process and aspect of the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) including the timeline, the Minister for Education and Bosomtwe Member of Parliament, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has said.

“If we have to incorporate lessons on the exam in the college of education courses, we will do it so that they sit for the exam immediately in their final examination – they won’t have to wait for a year to sit,” the Education Minister said.

At a meeting with the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on Wednesday, December 14, 2023, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said learning materials are being developed to facilitate the trained Colleges of Education (CoE) teachers.

“Only Colleges of Education used to train teachers but now, a lot of Universities are running Education Courses for distance learning. There is this private college running it too.

Cape Coast is training teachers, Winneba is also training teachers and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The teacher licensure examination is meant to test all these trainees from all these institutions,” he said.

The Minister in Charge of Education disclosed this after he was asked if his outfit has any plans to phase out the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) some students, educationists and stakeholders have called for it to be abolished.

In response to the exam cancellation, he said “We won’t cancel it because students don’t like it. No. Whatever we have to do to help them pass will be done as well…The exam is not intended to deprive anyone. It is in their best interest.”

In a related development, former President and National Democratic Congress flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, says his party will abolish the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination administered by the National Teaching Council (NTC).

In his address at a tour, John Mahama described the national licensure teacher as unnecessary arguing that teachers already undergo examinations at various stages of their training thus the GTLE becomes a burden on teachers.

The NDC flagbearer for the 2024 election said automatic posting of teacher trainee graduates under his leadership will be the mode of teacher employment assuring that no graduate would be denied posting or employment.

“We will abolish the obnoxious Ghana teacher licensure examination for teacher trainees and restore the automatic employment of teacher trainee graduates. Let me state unequivocally that no teacher trainee graduate will be denied posting or employment under the next Mahama government,” he stated.

The Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) is the credentialing examination of the National Teaching Council for pre-tertiary teachers in Ghana. Every successful candidate in the examination receives a professional teacher license.