26% teachers fail first licensure exam

Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty – Two (7,432) representing 26% out of the 28,757 teachers who wrote the licensure examination have failed. The larger number, 21, 287, representing 74% has however passed the exams.

This was contained in the results of the maiden teacher licensure examination released by the National Teaching Council (NTC). Meanwhile, the results of 26 candidates have been withheld pending the completion of investigations into their alleged involvement in examination malpractice, while 12 have had their entire results cancelled.

All candidates who sat for the examination to can check their results from the NTC online portal at www.exams.ntc.gov.gh, using their personal identification numbers (PINs) and the serial numbers used during the registration for the examination. Candidates can also obtain their results at the colleges of education where they sat for the examination.

Dr. Oduro expressed delight over the result and said, “even though there were failures, the outcome of the examination was encouraging, particularly so when it was the maiden edition”.

Statistics of the NTC indicates that, out of the 15,647 males who wrote the exams, 3,532, failed, while 3,938 among the 13,110 females, failed.

She explained that those who failed would be required to join the next batch to write the examination in March this year. She said the licensure examination had come to stay and that those without the license would not be allowed to enter classrooms to teach, be it in public or private schools.

The Executive Secretary explained that all newly trained diploma students from the various colleges of education who wanted to teach would be required to write the examination in their respective colleges.

She explained that those who were already teaching, both in public and private schools, would not be required to write the examination but would undertake a number of in-service professional training program to upgrade themselves to enable them to obtain the license.

She, therefore, asked teachers already in the classroom to disregard social media reports that those already teaching would be sacked because they did not have the license.

Targeted candidates for the exams were those who completed colleges of education last year or those who read Education in the various universities and colleges who were desirous of seeking employment with the Ghana Education Service (GES). The examination was written between September 10 and September 12, 2018. Papers written included Essential Professional Skills, Literacy and Numeracy Skills.

The reason behind the teacher licensure examination according to the National Teaching Council is to enable qualified teachers to acquire a professional license to ply their trade and to also improve the state of teaching as well as to improve the quality of teachers in the country.