On the teacher licensure mass failure

Ghanaian leaders have never prioritized basic education in the country. Just imagine an obnoxious system that says that because the public basic schools have so many challenges, let's give their BECE graduates an unfair 30%+ entry into the Presec Legons, WeyGeyHeys and Kwabotwes (more on this later), and we applaud them. So as a people, we seem to have normalized this.

Yet, another elephant in the room is that most of the teachers in those schools do little. Most of them cannot wrap their heads around assessing between 150 to 200 composition scripts effectively in a week compounding that with the ‘monster’ of lesson notes writing and teaching and learning activities. Mathematics teachers also have their challenges.

The biggest problem of all is poor remuneration. This cuts across both the public and private schools saved for a few. Our teachers are hardly given such ‘take home’ salaries that actually qualify to be taken home let alone talk about making any investment with it.

Honestly, nobody wants to teach in Ghana. Honestly, no teacher worth his or her salt wants to continue teaching in Ghana. Today, many experienced teachers are ‘running away’ to seek greener pastures elsewhere. Honestly, young intelligent teachers at the basic level are mocked at. Their well-meaning family members and friends, at the least opportunity, advise them to quit and find well paying jobs.

Why do we act hypocritically, demeaning one of the noblest professions in the world in our country and expect to attract the brilliant guys? Too many times our leaders have denied adequate resource allocation to the education sector. Teachers continue to cry so loud to the heavens, yet we do practically nothing.

So where are the professional teachers?

Today, there’s talk about massive failure of teachers or potential teachers who wrote the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE). A whopping 84% of the about 7,000 candidates failed. They failed so miserably. As usual, the partisan politicians are at each other’s throat trying to score cheap political points. And everybody seems to castigate them. At least they tried. At least they want to offer some help.

Truth is, some of these people wouldn't have dared come close to the profession that requires such high intellectual capacity. Yet, they did. And they did because it had already been degraded. And degraded by the very people who are clothed with the mandate to make it work.

How many politicians dream of their children becoming teachers in Ghana? How many middle class families want their children to be teachers in Ghana? Zilch. It surely feels nightmarish for them to even conceive such a thought. Trust me, nobody does. This is how bad our profession is.

However, all of us expect to have the brightest in the classroom mining the mind, heart and soul of the Ghanaian child. We expect to have crazily creatives to get into the classroom to bring out the potentials and capabilities of our children.

For some time now, I cringe when I hear people say teaching is a calling. Who called? How do you hear the call? Called to wallow in the poor state? Does whoever that call, call our politicians as well? Does he call the men and women who never want their children to be teachers in Ghana as well, yet want others to be dedicated? I need answers.

If we mind that the sensitive nature of teaching requires the best people, let's create a conducive environment. The bar must be set high. In the area of education, the principle of ‘glass half empty or half full’ does not apply. A half-educated population is even more dangerous than a population with no education at all.

The National Teaching Council and the National Schools Inspectorate Authority must do their work without fear or favour. They must crack the whip where necessary. Schools that do not meet the standards should be closed down.

In it all, parents must also be ready to pay realistic fees. If the revenue to pay good salaries and create better conditions for teachers is about 100% generated through school fees, then parents must be prepared to pay realistic fees. And such fees must also be paid on time for the necessary disbursements to be made.

Let's make the sector attractive and we will attract the best heads, hands and hearts to the classroom. Make it attractive to restore the sanctity of the profession. Indeed, it's a profession and so must be regulated by strict professional standards. Professional standards that will sieve the chaff out of the system and retain those who have signed on to continuous learning to improve their teaching knowledge, values and practice.