Ghana: Teachers Protest Over Licensure Exams

Minister of Education, Ghana, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh

Kumasi, Ashanti Region, August 28, 2018//-A group of newly trained teachers in the Ashanti Region has hit the streets of Kumasi to demonstrate against the Teacher Licensure Examinations being introduced by the government.

The group, which calls itself Friends of Colleges of Education, claims the exams is a strategy by the government to cut down on the employment of teachers.

The licensure exams was announced by the National Teaching Council (NTC) earlier this year and has since met series of rejection from the groups to be affected.

The NTC has however stacked to the policy and insisted the exams will be conducted for teachers within the country.

The licence, according to the NTC, will confirm teachers’ professional status and will be illegal to teach in any part of the country without it.

The Council will conduct licensure examination twice in a year; One for the Diploma in Basic Education graduates and the other for B.Ed graduates.

But the Friends of Colleges of Education have kicked against the move to introduce the exams.

Clad in red shirts with red arm bands and holding placards, the members who are mainly newly trained teachers from the Teacher Trainee Colleges in Ashanti Region, marched through some principal streets of Kumasi to register their displeasure.

Spokesperson for the Group, Eric Tetteh told 3News.com the demonstrations will be serialized across the region and climax it in Accra.

He explained that they are not against the licence but rather against the examinations that they have to write before qualifying as teachers.

“We have written a number of external and internal examinations before passing out as teachers, so why should the NTC burden us again with another examination before our licences are issued to us,” he questioned.

For them, this is an attempt by the government to cut down on the number of teachers it wants to employ

“This is a strategy by the government to reduce the number of teachers it wants to employ. It will lead to unemployment in the country so they should rescind their decision,” he said.

Eric Tetteh said the group will join other forces to resist any attempt to use the exams to deny them of employment.

3news

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