Former President and flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has promised to scrap the teacher licensure exams if elected as President again.
According to him, the teacher certification program is entirely needless,adding that the rationale behind its introduction was an attempt to deny most qualified applicants entry into the teaching profession.
He said that students in the various training colleges already take exams at every stage of their training at school; why then should they be compelled to write exams again after four years of completion of their field of study before posting them?
Speaking at Wenchi in the Bono Region as part of his Building Ghana Tour, Mr. Mahama said, “This is a needless and unnecessary venture for trainees to write the so-called licensure exams. In the next NDC administration, we will cancel the teacher licensure exams.”
He added, “This is not the first time NDC has made such a promise to cancel the teacher licensure exams.”
Mr. Mahama reiterated that, in the 2020 NDC manifesto, the umbrella fraternity vowed to abolish the techer licensure exams, which he indicates deny several qualified teachers the opportunity to be employed by the government in the teaching profession.
“We will abolish the obnoxious teacher licensure exams for teacher trainees and restore the automatic employment of teacher trainee graduates. Let me state categorically clear that no teacher trainee graduate will be denied posting or employment under the next Mahama government.”
Mr. Mahama stressed that the next NDC administration will put pragmatic measures in place to ensure quality teaching and learning in the colleges of education and to make the tech profession attractive.
