Education Minister, Yaw Osei Adutwum, is unhappy despite the lowering of the pass mark in the recent licensure examination, the failure rate was very high.

Out of the 27,455 candidates who sat for the 2020 teacher licensure examination, 8,442 failed to meet the pass mark.

The number represents 30.7% of the total candidates who sat for the exams in October last year.

A statement issued by the National Teaching Council (NTC) said 19,013 teachers, representing 69.3% passed the exams. 

The National Teaching Council (NTC) is set to release the results of October 2020 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) on Tuesday, January 5, 2021,” the statement said.

Total number of candidates: 27,455

Total pass: 19,013 (69.3%)

Total fail: 8,442 (30.7%)

On the processes for candidates checking their results, the Council said, the results will be published on its website and candidates can access them via their unique examination pins.

There is been for a review or abolition of the policy but government says it has come stay. At an interactive session with leadership of the national union of Ghana students, Education Minister says there is a resit for those that failed.

‘Exams for teachers, licensing for teachers, and other jurisdictions are done for two reasons, same as here. The first one is to see to the quality of the teachers who are coming out and going to be teaching and within that context, since we have so many universities actually training teachers and colleges of education, private colleges of education, there has to be a common denominator, a one metric or exam that makes you know that they are all doing what is expected of them. Factis we cannot lower the standard and even when the pass mark was lowered, so may failed in the exam and this cannot go on. ‘He said 

Teacher licensure controversy

The teacher licensure examination was introduced in 2018 to give teachers the requisite certification to practice in Ghana but became a subject for controversy in the country.

The government had insisted that there is nothing wrong with the process, but the opposition National Democratic Congress says the mode of delivery of the exams is not the best.

 

President Akufo Addo is backing fully the teacher licensure examination introduced in 2018 to give teachers the requisite certification to practice in Ghana. He says quality must be maintained.

‘education is key and it is at the center of our development agenda and therefore the teachers must be of high quality and therefore the exams but like has been said, there is remedy for those that failed and I hope they take advantage of the provision and rewrite’ he added.

President of the national Union of Ghana students, Emmanuel Yiadom Boakye who raised the issue is hopeful the affected teachers will take advantage.