Wild Protests Hit Kumasi Against Teacher Licensing Exam

Some newly trained teachers from various Colleges of Education marched through the principal streets of the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, to protest against the examination that seeks to license teachers.

The protesters, calling themselves Friends from Colleges of Education, have said they have not been given any orientation and course materials to equip them for the newly introduced examinations.

The protesters are also complaining about the amount charged as registration fee for the license exams.

The introduction of the licensing examination was met with some agitation by some teacher associations.

The protesters say they will petition the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service.

They claim that even the National Teaching Council is not ready for the exams it is supposed to oversee.

“They [National Teaching Council] are not even prepared themselves. No materials, no curriculum for us. How can you write a professional exam without any specified curriculum? So we are not ready to write the exams until we are provided certain things that will help us to write the exams.”

“If they are to bring us certain books to learn, we would be able to write the exams. But without the materials and a specified curriculum, we are not writing that exam,” one protester said to Citi News.

“After the demonstration, if we don’t hear anything about it, then we are going to boycott the registration. We will never write the exams, period,” one other teacher remarked.

Protests of this nature are expected to continue nationwide, with some aggrieved teachers also preparing to protest in the Eastern Region on Wednesday.

Applicants expected to pay a registration fee of GHc220 for the exam which is scheduled to take place from Monday, September 10 to Wednesday, September 12, 2018 in all Colleges of Education.

The examination is for all teachers who hold the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) or a post-graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) who want to be employed by the Ghana Education Service.

According to the National Teaching Council, the purpose of the licensing examination is to enable qualified teachers to acquire a professional license to ply their trade.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citinewsroom.com/Ghana