The type of education that train teachers is faulty and must be fixed – Prof. Ransford Gyampo

Prof. Ransford Gyampo

Senior political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has shared his view on former President John Dramani Mahama’s plan to cancel the Teacher Licensure Examination if he becomes president again.

Since making the announcement, many have shared their view.

IMANI CEO Franklin Cudjoe has argued against the cancellation of the Teacher Licensure Exam.

In a post on Facebook, he explained, “Frankly with the type of answers prospective teachers provided in the recent licensure exams( LE), I'd be wary cancelling an entry barrier like that which should temporarily sieve the growing 'chaff' from the limited good lot. It seems to me the problem has to do with the very poor quality of instruction, and practical training given in many of our SHS and Training Colleges.

“We need to fix these problems, which means extensively reviewing teaching, learning methods and models. When we are satisfied with the level of outcomes, I'd think replacing LE with a continuous professional development programme requiring some form of aptitude and quantitative test will help.”

Commenting on this, Prof. Ransford Gyampo says he disagrees with Franklin Cudjoe although he admits the type of education that trains teachers is faulty.

He is of the view that the Teacher Licensure Exam should be cancelled and the issues addressed internally.

“I respectfully disagree with my good friend Franklyn Cudjoe of IMANI and support the proposal to cancel the Teacher Licensure Exams. Clearly, the type of education that trains Teachers is faulty and must be fixed. But this can be internally done,” Prof. Ransford Gyampo said in a statement.

He is of the view that the way to go is not to introduce another layer of exams but to review the curriculum and Training College exams for the purposes of addressing their identified deficiencies.

Below is a copy of the statement from Prof. Ransford Gyampo:

I respectfully disagree with my good friend Franklyn Cudjoe of IMANI, and support the proposal to cancel the Teacher Licensure Exams. Clearly, the type of education that train Teachers is faulty and must be fixed. But this can be internally done. The way to go is not to introduce another layer of exam. On the contrary we must review the curriculum and Training College exams for the purposes of addressing their identified deficiencies.

We are fond of creating new structures to deal with old problems that can be dealt with, by overhauled existing structures. Even when we have the opportunity to overhaul existing structures to make them work, we would want to easily develop “useless new solutions” that do not solve problems.

That’s how come we are always looking for new foreign coaches for the Black Stars, even though we know that the problems are within, and that, a serious overhaul of existing structures with a view to ensuring that our real talents and not “bribed talents”get to play, would revolutionarize football in Ghana. Again, that’s how come we have gone to create a highly incompetent “eye service” office of Special Prosecutor, instead of overhauling the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney General to ensure that it is effective in prosecuting all, regardless of partisan coloration.

Ghana’s 1992 Constitution is more voluminous than the US Constitution. It has provisions that deals virtually with all aspects of our lives. But we are always looking for new laws to solve problems. The whole nation is 75 percent “churchical” and we have huge Cathedrals almost everywhere in the country. But we still want to build a National Cathedral to solve some “manufactured problems”.

The solution to the problems we face as a country are known. We need not, for very crude and sometimes corrupt reasons, create new “useless solutions” when we haven’t interrogated and fully made use of the existing structures that have better potency to deal with our challenges.

Yaw Gyampo
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