The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has cautioned against abolishing the teacher licensure examination, emphasizing its significance in upholding quality standards in Ghana’s education sector.
His remarks follow a recent directive from the Ministry of Education, instructing the National Teaching Council (NTC) to organise a final sitting under the current licensure framework by August 30.
The directive, issued by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu, aims to transition to a new system for evaluating teacher qualifications.
However, Mr. Asare clarified on The Point of View on Channel One TV which was monitored by Ghanaian RADAR that the teacher licensure exam remains essential for quality assurance. “Teacher Licensure examination hasn’t been abolished. It’s still very relevant, and for me, we need it for quality assurance. If we abolish that particular examination conducted by that external body, we will be admitting many people whom I reviewed their scripts personally, who couldn’t put together a sentence in English,” he stated.
He stressed the importance of maintaining the exam’s independence to ensure its credibility and objectivity. “They will be admitting all of them to our classrooms, and that would be a disaster. So, we need the Teacher Licensure Exams. The fact that it is conducted by an independent body and not the faculty is very important,” he added.
Mr. Asare’s comments come amid a growing debate on the future of the teacher licensure regime, with some stakeholders and student-teachers calling for reforms due to concerns over the exam’s structure and outcomes.
