Napo inspecting the GTLE at St. Louis College of Education in Kumasi yesterday
THE MARCH 2020 edition of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) started across the country on Sunday, with the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, sending a “good luck” message to the 14,548 teachers taking part in the examination.
Accompanied by Christian Addai Poku, the Executive Secretary, National Teaching Council (NTC), the minister visited St. Louis College of Education in Kumasi, one of the centres to support the teachers.
The GTLE is among the numerous positive interventions introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government since it assumed political power in January 2017 to engender professionalism and decency into the teaching sector that would lead to improved teaching and learning outcomes in schools.
Ideally, the examination was expected to take place in March 2020 but due to the Covid-19 restrictions, it was postponed. The examination was held concurrently at all the various centres across the country yesterday to ensure fairness and avert cheating.
The minister stated that the government’s decision to introduce the GTLE was yielding dividends as the new policy had contributed to professionalism and dignity to the noble teaching profession.
He said “the government has the interest of teachers at heart and will do everything to make them feel motivated.”
For instance, the minister mentioned the introduction of teacher promotional examination, which has ensured fairness in teacher promotions, and others as some of the interventions, with the College of Education graduates receiving degrees instead of diploma after their studies.
Dr. Prempeh admonished final year senior high school (SHS) students that would be going back to school to strictly adhere to all health protocols suggested by health professionals in order to help prevent them from contracting Covid-19.
He said “the government has the interest and well-being of students at heart,” indicating that government would monitor the situation of the final year students on campus, and the success chalked up would determine how the schools in general would be reopened.
On his part, Christian Addai Poku commended the government for introducing the GTLE, observing that “the success rate has been good so far with an average of 70 per cent pass.”
He said there is a roadmap to get all teachers to take the GTLE before they could teach, announcing that “government is currently in talks with the private schools and hopefully in three to four years’ time the private school teachers will have to sit for the GTLE before they could also teach.”
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi