Mass failure in teacher Licensure Exams for May 2023 triggered public discussions on the quality of teachers being employed to teach in the public schools.
As the public and Teacher Associations such as NAGRAT express concern over the modalities of the Exams, the Ministry of Education has stepped up effort to drastically streamline the process in line best standards whilst also minimizing the high rate of failure in the teacher licensure exams.
Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum addressing the media
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Tuesday, the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum emphasized that the Ministry is confronting the challenges associated with the exams in order to change the narrative.
He revealed that one of the measures put in place is the setting up of a Committee of eminent personalities to investigate the cause of the mass failure and profer recommendations to the Ministry.
Dr. Adutwum added that the terms of reference of the Committee [which includes the Deputy Minister Hon. Ntim Fordjour, Prof Eric Anane of UCC , Chief Director of Education Ministry among others] include looking at the alignment of the exams with the framework of teaching, the process for the selection of students going into teaching profession and examining the best practice and standards.
The other terms of reference is to look into the availability of prep materials for the Candidates to enable them to prepare well for the exams.
The hardworking Minister who is also the MP for Bosomtwe, explained that these terms of reference and measures are to curtail the mass failure in the licensure exams.
He also revealed that the Ministry is looking at a possible introduction of an entrance assessment as part of the selection process for teacher education admissions.
These, he said are geared towards making education in Ghana an attractive one that meets international standards.
The Education Minister allayed the fears of the people and teachers and assured that these new measures would help streamline the teacher licensure exams.
A total of 6,451 representing 83.5% teachers failed in the 2023 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination conducted in May 2023.
But, the National Teaching Council Registrar, Dr. Christian Addai-Poku who was at the news conference, on his part, explained that prior to the Licensure exams 1 in 2021, the failure rate hovered around 27%.
Registrar of National Teaching Council, Dr Christian Addai-Poku speaking to the media
He said the Council upon suspicion of malpractices at some of the centres introduced some measures to deal with the malpractices.
Touching on the mass failure in the May 2023 licensure exams, Dr. Addai-Poku stressed that the exams was written by only candidates who had re-sat several times specifically in the range of 2 to 10.
He explained further that from 2018 to 2022, a total number of 145,050 candidates have sat the examination maintaining that the 7,728 candidates who sat the 2023 exams are the remnants of the 145,050.
“This shows that a greater percentage of 95% passed leaving this small percentage of 5% that is unable to meet the competencies in National Teachers’ Standard”, Dr. Addai-Poku said.
Source:www.senaradioonline.com
