25% of newly trained teachers not qualified – National Teaching Council

The Executive Secretary of the National Teaching Council (NTC), Christian Addai-Poku, has said about 25 per cent of newly trained teachers are not qualified to be in the classroom.

This comes as a result of the average pass rate in the past three Ghana Teacher Licensure Examinations (GLTE) written by the newly trained teachers hovering around 75 per cent.

“This is an issue we, as a nation, cannot just gloss over,” Mr Addai-Poku said and has, therefore, called for a concerted effort by stakeholders to address the challenge.

He was speaking at a day’s briefing session of stakeholders on the 2019 licensure examination in Accra last week.

The meeting brought together principals of colleges of education, lecturers from universities that offer education, staff of the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the NTC.

The workshop which was on the theme, “Improving teacher education through Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination,” was to elicit ideas to help improve the GTLE and to further appreciate the realities of students’ performance, as well as discuss ways to improve the GTLE.

They were also to come up with recommendations to improve candidates’ performance in the GTLE to ensure quality in the classroom.

According to Mr Addai-Poku, this was necessary for learners to develop the requisite skills to compete favourably within the global village.

“We need teachers who are equipped with the right skills set that is more interactive, agile and student-centred,” he said.

He said teachers are the most important school resource who influence students’ outcomes.

“Teachers must be knowledgeable in what they do; that means our teachers must live up to the required set of professional standards of practice and values, and that means our teachers must be 21st-century skills compliant,” he said.

The NTC Executive Secretary said the strategic plan of the country was to deliver quality education for all, adding that “the NTC believes that a well-prepared, well-equipped, well-motivated and a well-accountable teacher will lead us there.”

Per NTC regulations, a person can only teach in a classroom after writing and passing a licensure exam.

The Board Chairman of the NTC, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, said the GTLE had come to stay, for which reason stakeholders must find ways to make the system better.