By Patrick Biddah
The Registrar for National Teaching Council (NTC), Dr Christian Addai-Poku, has revealed that 30percent of teachers in Ghana, are not qualify to teach.
He further, revealed that 14, 000 out of the 30percent are currently working with the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Giving details, he said the unqualified teachers, include graduates from the Junior High School, Senior High Schools and universities.
The situation, he added is quite worrying on the private sector where about 70percent of private school teachers, are not professionals.
More Read
Dr Addai-Poku, made this revelation at the launch of Private School Teacher Continuous Professional Development (PST-CPD), programmeon Monday, February 20, 2022.
The programme, he noted is aimed at ensuring that only teachers with the requisite skills and qualifications are allowed to teach which is the mandate NTC is carrying out to the end of the year..
.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, the National Teaching Council and other stakeholders, who partnered with Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) through the Obaatam Care Programme to at least train 2000 private school teachers as part of government effort to license all teachers in the country.
He said the programme forms the basis of training unqualified teachers to equip them with the best practices on how to teach literacy and numeracy and also in-depth knowledge of professional practice and conduct.
In all, the over 2000 unqualified beneficiary teachers, will be issued with a temporary license which will qualify the private school teachers to be in the classroom whiles they wait for the processes leading to obtaining a full license.
“Over the year, our education system has leveraged the readiness and availability of non-professional teachers to deliver education in the country and the government is working hard to close the gap of qualified teachers in both private and public school,” he stated.
The registrar said the programme is to equip and train 48 master trainers who will move across the country and train private school teachers to acquire the basic skills that will help them efficiently handle their classes.
“It is important to note that this training as important as it is does not guarantee participants the license to teach and it is NTC’s requirement that all in-service teachers in both private and public schools undertake periodic training to ensure quality delivery of lessons to learners.”, he explained.
The NTC , he pointed out is not interested in laying off unqualified teachers but rather intends to undertake programmes and initiatives aimed at ensuring that the Ghanaian teacher attain the highest professional status.
However, those who are unable to position themselves by taking advantage of what GNACOPS is doing will have to find their way out of the system, he warned.
“I will urge all qualified teachers, especially in all the private schools to apply for the teachers license currently going on throughout the country to do so because by law, it is the only authorisation to teach currently in Ghana.”
Dr Addai-Poku, said as part of the requirement for the ensure private teachers are trained, NTC has introduced entrance exams to ensure that “we get it right from the start. We need the right people to be trained as teachers so that when they can come out, we are sure that most of them will meet our fitness to teach test.”
Delivering a speech at the launch, the Executive Director of GNACOPS, Mr Enoch KwasiGyetuah, said the four day-training will equip 48 master trainers of private school teachers who will intend be training 2000 teachers nationwide and will be issued with temporary license , adding that plans are in place to liaise with the University of Education at Winneba to offer courses leading to acquiring full teacher license.
He said the facilitators who will be giving tuition to the master trainers are drawn from University of Cape Coast and also from all teacher training collages across the country .
He used the occasion to thank NTC for their continuous support of ensuring that those who receive education in the private schools in Ghana are sanitized .
Mr Gyetuah, said the ongoing PST-CPD is not going to target only teachers but also look at positioning school heads.
