The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, believes that the widespread failure recorded in the Teacher Licensure Examination justifies its continuation rather than its abolition.

Speaking on Newsfile, on Saturday, he explained that the examination serves as evidence that only qualified teachers are entrusted with educating students in basic and senior high schools.

Dr Adutwum said that the record is “good news because we are getting the best. If we were passing everybody then nobody would fail.”

“You have to have them (the requirements/license) to meet the standard, to enter the classroom and do a great job for our children. If we're realising that, unfortunately, they are not meeting the standard why pass them all?” the Minister quizzed.

The statement follows the disclosure by the National Teaching Council (NTC) on December 20 that approximately 9,556 teachers, constituting 47%, failed the 2023 licensure exam.

They indicated that out of the 20,181 teachers who participated, only 10,625 successfully passed.

Notably, the performance in elective subjects was comparatively weaker, with 53 out of 63 subjects recording a 50% or higher pass rate, and 10 subjects recording less than a 50% pass rate.

However, this is not the first mass failure recorded in the licensure exams’ history.

Meanwhile, Dr. Adutwum affirmed that collaborative efforts are underway between his ministry and the NTC to mitigate the annual incidence of failures.

He admitted that “the exam is very different from the courses they are used to. The exams are assessing more critical thinking. Maybe the grades from their teachers and the courses that they did are not aligned, so we need to do a better job getting them prepared."

Dr. Adutwum expressed confidence that with adequate preparation, a significant majority of the teacher trainees could improve their performance.

“We have all discussed what they (NTC) should do is to get study materials because this is a new exam…now we are doing restructuring with NTC to ensure that as soon as they finish school they can write the exams there, so they do not stay at home and be still for one year waiting to write the exams.”

Dr Adutwum stated that it is important to ensure that better-trained teachers are passing the exam and being employed rather than completely scrapping it.

“We know no one likes exams and therefore if you take the easy road as a politician and say ‘I am scrapping it', they will jubilate but are the students in the classroom going to jubilate?”