On Licensure Exams: Teacher And Trainees Advocacy Replies Mahama

A group calling itself Teacher And Trainees Advocacy has disagreed with former President John Mahama over the cancelation of the newly introduced educational reform, the licensure exams

The group has further argued that any attempt to cancel the licensure exams for teachers will undermine the teaching profession.

This is in response to the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama’s calls for the cancellation of the Teacher Licensure Exam and the abolishing of the mandatory National Service by teachers.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, the National Coordinator of the Teacher and Trainees Advocacy, Patrick Antwi Karikari, advised the political class to desist from making promises with educational policies.

“We see this move to be highly deleterious and will imperil the future of our teacher trainees. It must be noted that direct posting is still in place as far as our research team is concerned. No qualified newly trained teacher has been deprived of posting or employment after college,” he stated.

“The Teacher and Trainees Advocacy wants to state with no unsureness that the state of our newly trained teachers is better with the implementation of the mandatory national service and the licensure exams, as these two keys evaluate the status and standard of the newly trained teachers from the university colleges of education.” Mahama's comments

Former President John Mahama, who was speaking in a Facebook live session in December 2019, stressed that an improvement in the quality of teaching and examinations at the Colleges of Education was more important than the licensure examination, and therefore will do away with the licensure exams if elected to power.

This decision was further backed by the Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe who said the focus should be on improving the quality of teaching at the Colleges of Education and not the exam since its not ”only examinations that can make somebody a better teacher”.

Teachers pass 2019 exam

The 2019 teacher licensure exam recorded a 78.2 percent pass rate representing 27,171 out of 34,724 teachers who sat for the examination.

This means 21.8 percent of the teachers, representing 7,553 teachers failed the exam, according to the National Teaching Council (NTC).

Teachers who failed, however, will have the opportunity to retake the examination sometime in March 2020.

---CitinewsRoom