A total 7,432 teachers have failed the maiden teacher licensure
examination, results released by the National Teaching Council (NTC) has
shown.
Per the results, of the 28,757 teachers who wrote the examination, 21,287, representing 74 per cent passed the exams.
The results of 26 candidates have been withheld pending the completion
of investigations into their alleged involvement in examination
malpractice, while 12 have had their entire results cancelled.
The results have been posted on the council’s online portal for candidates to access them from today.
Details of results
Giving details of the results in an interview in Accra yesterday, the
Executive Secretary of the NTC, Dr Mrs Evelyn Owusu Oduro, asked all
those who sat for the examination to check their results from the NTC
online portal at www.exams.ntc.gov.gh, using their personal
identification numbers (PINs) and the serial numbers used during the
registration for the examination.
“Candidates can also obtain their results at the colleges of education where they sat for the examination,” she directed.
She said even though there were failures, the outcome of the examination
was encouraging, particularly so when it was the maiden edition.
Statistics
Giving statistics of the results, Dr Mrs Oduro said out of the 13,110
females who sat for the examination, 3,938 failed while out of the
15,647 males who wrote the exams, 3,532 failed.
She explained that those who failed would be required to join the next batch to write the examination in March this year.
She said the licensure examination had come to stay and that those
without the licence would not be allowed to enter classrooms to teach,
be it in public or private schools.
Targeted candidates
Dr Mrs Oduro explained that the targeted candidates were those who
completed colleges of education this year or those who read Education in
the various universities and colleges who were desirous of seeking
employment with the GES.
The executive secretary explained that all newly trained diploma
students from the various colleges of education who wanted to teach
would be required to write the examination in their respective colleges.
She explained that those who were already teaching, both in public and
private schools, would not be required to write the examination but
would undertake a number of in-service professional training programmes
to upgrade themselves to enable them to obtain the licence.
She, therefore, asked teachers already in the classroom to disregard
social media reports that those already teaching would be sacked because
they did not have the licence.
Why the licensure exams
Dr Mrs Oduro explained that the rationale behind the licensure
examination was not to prevent people from getting employment, as was
being expressed by some students in the colleges of education.
“The examination is to ensure that we have quality teachers to teach our
children and raise the standard of teaching in Ghana. It will also
prepare Ghanaian teachers to be accepted globally,” she explained.
Initial resistance
The licensure examination was initially resisted fiercely by some
teacher unions and a section of the newly trained teachers who
threatened to hit the streets in protest.
While the trainees accused the NTC of devising means to deny them
employment, the teacher unions described the timetable for the conduct
of the examination as “hastily put together”.
However, the NTC strongly dismissed the position of the teacher unions,
saying that since 2016, it embarked on sensitisation exercises to
educate all stakeholders and the Teacher Trainees Association, Ghana
(TTAG) on the examination.
The NTC said it engaged with the vice-chancellors and registrars of the
universities, the executives of the University Teachers Association of
Ghana (UTAG) and the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools
(CHASS), the Conference of District Directors of Education, among other,
on the examination.
However, after a meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew
Opoku Prempeh, the unions, which initially expressed their reservations
about the examination, later rescinded their decision.