A teacher says in present times people regard teaching as the last solution when they have tried other fields without being successful.

Emmanuel Afful lamented that such an attitude is one that is an albatross on the neck of the country's education sector.

He is, therefore, calling on authorities to take their time in providing solutions to it and other underlying factors.

"What we have today is a system which has actually made teaching or the teaching profession the last resort for some people.

"To the extent that now, people decide on whatever they want to become and when they're unsuccessful, they decide to be teachers."

"This is one of the problems we have now. The system we're operating in nowadays, is actually due to certain factors and I think we need to take our time and talk about those factors," he said on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Tuesday.

This comes after the National Teaching Council revealed that about 83.5% of candidates failed the teacher licensure exams held in May 2023.

The NTC noted that out of the 7,728 students who participated in the re-sit exams, only 1,277 passed.

The assessment in numeracy, literacy and professional knowledge is to enable qualified students to get a professional license while attracting young graduates with the required professional knowledge and skills to teach.

Following the failure, the Registrar of the Council, Christian Addai-Poku, told JoyNews that the teachers who failed would be given a last chance to re-sit.

Commenting further, Emmanuel Afful said although the exam is a good approach in that it seeks to "professionalise the teaching career," he believes that it has been placed at the "wrong fortune."

Comparing the past system of admitting trained teachers to the current system, he disclosed that he chose to become a teacher even while he was in primary 5.

He explained that during his days in training college, emphasis was laid on English and Mathematics.

"Either of which when a student passed is eligible to be retained to continue, otherwise they would be flushed out of the system, according to a policy back then," he said.

Emmanuel continued that although he failed "in Mathematics, there was an intervention that provided that even those who failed either English or Maths should be posted to the primary level other than to the Junior and Secondary levels after their years of study. Those who excelled made it to the higher levels."

According to him, the intervention came in at the appropriate time because at the period, there was a quest to flush out pupil teachers from the system and so those who failed either English or Maths were posted to replace all the pupil teachers in primary schools.

This was because, despite their failure, it was believed that they received the requisite training to be at that level.

Mr Afful is, therefore, proposing that the education sector goes back to the old system where even those who failed the licensure exam will still be provided with some other options.

He concluded that many of those who failed the licensure exam were trained "pedagogically" and not necessarily "content-wise."