Angel Carbonu (middle) addressing the media
The government has been asked to engage key stakeholders in the education sector on the teacher licensing exams policy that the Ghana Education Service (GES) is seeking to introduce.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) made the call yesterday in Accra, following GES’s recent announcement that it would commence a licensing exams for all teacher trainees and teachers across the country to ensure standardization in the teaching profession.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of GES, Rev. Jonathan Betteh, said in an interview with the media on Tuesday that “before we recognize you as a professional teacher, you will need to be licensed.”
The move, he explained, was part of the education sector’s professional development and it applies to both trainee teachers graduating from public and private teacher training colleges nationwide.
But NAGRAT wants the central government to undertake broad consultation with key stakeholders in the education sector to, as it were, address the policy’s “many deficiencies,” noting that the policy, as it is currently, does not endear itself to the stakeholders.
Addressing journalists at a press conference, Vice President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, pointed out that some issues in the policy ought to be addressed before the implementation of the controversial policy.
Issues such as cost of the exams and who bears it need to be considered by key stakeholders through a consultation mechanism.
He explained that “if the cost associated with the operation of the policy is left unaddressed, how can one expect those who may have to pay for it to embrace the policy?”
By Melvin Tarlue