A phobia for examinations refers to the acute fear to be assessed through a test. Teachers are the main professionals who prepare pupils and students for examinations after exhausting the contents of approved curricula.
It presupposes therefore that such assessment should not be a source of nightmare for members of this noble profession.
Strangely, however, for inexplicable reasons teachers are exhibiting aversion for the novelty of being tested so they can be licensed to teach.
The last group of professionals to have a phobia for examinations should not be teachers because, after all, they are masters at setting questions for others to answer.
Today, it is time for them to be tested and their disapproval has hit an unacceptable pitch. We must state that their noisy aversion is incommensurate with their status as custodians of discipline.
We salute the originators of the novelty because by that the teaching profession is being accorded the deference that it deserves. The role of teachers in every society is beyond compare and so we implore all well meaning persons to rivet their support on the authorities in the direction of licensing teachers and re-registering those already in the system.
We have taken note of the protest by some teacher-trainees in the Ashanti Regional capital a couple of days or so ago and wish to express our reprehension about it.
As teacher-trainees, they must appreciate the esteem in which the political administration holds members of the teaching profession. This respect is evidenced by the restoration of the allowances for teacher-trainees which was abolished by the past government.
Those who could be perhaps giving an unwholesome fillip to the agitation against the licensing project must re-think the politicization of the subject and instead consider the bigger picture of elevating the status of the teaching profession and enhancing the quality of their productivity.
Haven’t there been instances of persons teaching when they do not meet the standard requirements for doing so? It behooves the government to ensure that the right things are done so that the various programmes put in place to raise the quality of, especially, education are achieved.
Investing so much money in education, especially, the free SHS segment demands that new trends are introduced to enhance the quality of education. The role of a quality human resource cannot be downplayed in every society.
The achievement of such countries such as Finland which depend on their human resource base to reach the remarkable status they are in today is rooted in the quality of education they are providing for their people.
Teachers and teacher-trainees should be grateful that they are being exalted to a higher professional plane through the licensing project. Those in the legal and medical profession, to mention but a few, undergo such examinations and for us when a group of teacher-trainees hit the street over what they should clap hands over is to display outright ignorance about what is at stake.
Leaders take decisions on behalf of their people and so government and for that matter, the state agency acting on its behalf, should pursue the project because it is in the best interest of education to do so.