Licensure exams shambolic, NTC was ill-prepared - Akatsi North MP

A ranking member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, has said the National Teaching Council’s (NTC) was not adequately prepared for the teacher licensure examination hence the numerous challenges faced by candidates.

He argued there was no clear road-map to guide the conduct of the examination.

The Akatsi North legislator told Citi News the ongoing exams should be halted and postponed to next year.

“We need adequate preparation for this licensure examination. The way they are conducting this is so shambolic. There is no proper management of the system. It is good we want to license our teachers, but we must adopt procedures that are favorable to the candidates or the teachers who are to write this examination, so nobody is at a disadvantage. Like it happened on Monday, some people wrote the exams at 3: 00, others at 2: 00, 1: 00 and 12: 00 o’clock.

“What is the guarantee that these questions will not get to other centers for them to prepare ahead of the examination… the NTC failed in listening to the public outcry about the conduct of the examination. They were not prepared, and they went ahead. That is the challenge they are facing now so they must come back again. To me, I think they should even abandon the examination this year and prepare for next year.”

The examination applies to all teachers who hold the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE), Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) or a post-graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) who want to be employed by the Ghana Education Service.

According to the NTC, the purpose of the licensing examination is to enable qualified teachers to acquire a professional license to ply their trade.

However, hundreds of newly trained teachers who turned up for the exams on Monday expressed their frustration over some challenges including delays in the start of the exams.

Some teachers in the Upper West Region also claimed they were forced to pay an extra 10 cedis aside the registration fee already paid for the exams.

Extra fees charged for Licensure exams to be refunded

The NTC said it will investigate circumstances under which some Colleges of Education allegedly demanded extra fees from teachers who sat for the teacher licensure exams on Monday and if possible refund the monies.

“So far, we have not actually had any bad news, but the only thing we heard was that some of the schools were charging some monies that we had no idea about, and so we still want to look into it and find out what actually led to these schools charging those amounts and if possible do a refund,” Public Relations Officer for the NTC, Dennis Owusu assured.

By: Marian Ansah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana

Source: citifmonline.com