The Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC), Dr. Christian Addai-Poku, has raised concerns about the low number of teachers who have complied with the renewal of their professional licenses.

Speaking on the EduTalk Show on JoyNews, Dr. Addai-Poku revealed that out of 289,000 licensed teachers, only 4,000 are currently on track to meet the renewal deadline by the end of 2024.

He indicated that despite efforts to sound the alarm about this issue, compliance levels have remained low.

“A lot of licensed teachers have not yet complied with the renewal of the teacher license. In fact, last year, I wrote to the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service. I sounded the alarm, and it became an issue in the country that if care was not taken, as at the time, by the end of 2024, only 4,000 teachers [out of 289,000] were going to qualify, and things haven’t changed that much, and it’s a worry to us,” he said.

Dr. Addai-Poku attributed the low compliance rate to various factors, including the novelty of the licensing system in Ghana and Africa at large. He acknowledged that many teachers are still adjusting to the idea of regularly renewing their licenses.

“We are still talking to the Ghana Education Service. We have come out with reforms in the system to make it a bit easy for people to renew without necessarily compromising quality. I think this will work. It’s a gradual process. We started this new, and many African countries are not into it. Only a few are into this. But we believe that is the way the world is moving towards, and everybody will come onboard,” he explained.

The NTC introduced the Teacher Licensure Examination in 2018 as part of efforts to ensure that teachers possess the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver quality education. The assessment serves as a benchmark to determine whether teachers meet the right standards to be employed in the Ghana Education Service (GES).

According to Dr. Addai-Poku, the average pass rate for the licensure exams has consistently hovered around 68% since its inception.

"Using the licensure exams as the benchmark, averagely we’re having about 68 percent of the teachers being of the right standards because that’s how the pass rate has been hovering about," Dr. Addai-Poku stated, noting that this figure indicates that a significant majority of Ghanaian teachers possess the qualifications and competencies necessary for the classroom.

The Registrar stressed that the exams are not designed to discourage or disqualify teachers but to maintain high professional standards within the teaching profession.

"The exams are meant to ensure that we have qualified teachers in our classrooms. It’s not to push anyone out of the profession but to guarantee quality education for our students," he added.

In addition to the licensure requirements, Dr. Addai-Poku highlighted the international recognition that Ghanaian teachers now receive due to the country’s high standards of teacher training and education.

He mentioned that Ghana, along with three other African countries - Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe - has been granted special recognition in the United Kingdom, allowing licensed teachers from these countries to bypass the rigorous process typically required to qualify as teachers in the UK.

“Only four countries in Africa have been given that dispensation of not going through the rigor of becoming a qualified teacher in the United Kingdom. If you’re a Ghanaian teacher and you hold the teacher’s license and you get to the UK right now, you’ll just be given the qualified teacher status,” he explained.

This recognition, he noted, is a testament to the quality of teacher training in Ghana. “Hitherto, you’d have to go through a lot of rigor to be able to do that. Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe were the four countries that were given, and it was not just given. They looked at our standards, the way we train our teachers before eventually saying that we meet those standards,” Dr. Addai-Poku said.

Despite these achievements, the NTC Registrar reiterated the importance of teachers renewing their licenses to maintain professional standards and keep the education system in line with global trends.

The NTC said it is working closely with the Ghana Education Service to implement reforms aimed at making the license renewal process more accessible without compromising quality.

Dr. Addai-Poku remains hopeful that more teachers will comply with the renewal process as the deadline approaches.

In the meantime, he encouraged teachers to take the necessary steps to renew their licenses, emphasizing that the licensure system is designed to enhance the professionalism and quality of teaching in Ghana. With the support of stakeholders and the gradual implementation of reforms, he believes the teaching profession in Ghana will continue to improve, benefiting both teachers and students alike.