Failed GTLE candidates shouldn’t be allowed to rewrite – Eduwatch

Mr Kofi Asare, the Director of Africa Education Watch (EduWatch), has asserted that trained teachers who want to become professional teachers should not be allowed to take the Ghana teacher licensure examination more than once.

In an interview monitored by Thisterm.com, he said candidates who fail the licensure examination administered by the National Teaching Council should not be allowed to resit because they probably are not cut out to be teachers.

Citing literacy and content knowledge as assessment aspects of the national examination he said that if a prospective teacher cannot read and write good English on their first attempt at the exams, that person is probably not qualified.

“Once you demonstrate the incapacity to read and write or demonstrate low proficiency in the English Language, that should be it. You cannot learn English in tertiary education, so that should be the end.

“… it is non-negotiable. We shouldn’t allow them to even write it for a second time,” the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) is quoted as having said during an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show.

Kofi Asare, however, noted that persons who struggle with academics or particular subjects should be given a second chance to take the exams.

He urged Ghanaians to accept the National Teaching Council’s (NTC) Ghana teacher licensure examination introduced by the government saying that it will help improve the standards of teaching in the country’s public and private schools.

“So that we uphold the standard or improve the standard of the teacher and teaching in our schools, both public and private. So everyone should embrace the teacher licensure initiative because our children are those who will stand to benefit,” he explained.

In other news, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum as part of measures to ensure the majority of trainee teachers who sit for the Ghana teacher licensure examination pass has directed the National Teaching Council to provide them with practice books.

Speaking at a Ghana Teacher Prize Award ceremony, the Minister in Charge of Education urged the National Teaching Council to align the university curriculum with the requirements of the National teacher licensure examination.

He also mandated the management of the 46 government Colleges of Education and universities in the country to develop courses for the national examination to enable teachers to acquire professional teaching licenses.

“We want to create the opportunity to make the licensure exams painless and make sure that the majority of our teachers will pass the exams for the first time,” the Education Minister told stakeholders at the Teacher Awards event.