In a collective expression of frustration and disappointment, a group identifying as the Coalition of Unemployed Trained Teachers (CUTT) has voiced concerns over the prolonged delay in their postings by the government.
The group, comprising individuals who have completed their four-year Bachelor of Education (B.ED) program, mandatory National Service, and licensure exams, expressed dismay at the lack of assurance regarding their employment timelines.
As pioneers of the four-year B.ED program in colleges of education, the group emphasized their commitment to positively transforming the country’s human resource through acquired skills, knowledge, and competencies.
However, they lamented being left in uncertainty without concrete information on when their postings would be executed.
“Having been the pioneers of the four-year Bachelor of Education (B.ED) programme in the colleges of education, completed our one-year mandatory National Service as well and successfully passed our licensure exams, it saddens our hearts, joy and pride that we, pioneers of a programme that seeks to positively transform the human resource(students) of our country through the requisite skills, knowledge and competencies that we have been equipped with, are being left to our fate and there is no news as to when exactly our postings will be done for us,” the group stated.
Despite successfully passing licensure exams and being issued licenses by the National Teaching Council (NTC) set to expire in 2025, the group remains unemployed. This discrepancy, according to them, is unfair, particularly considering their role as the first batch of teachers trained under the new B.ED program and the Common Core Program aimed at enhancing education quality.
The group posed critical questions about the realization of the successes or failures of the new B.ED program when its pioneers are left unemployed. They called on the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service to expedite the financial clearance process and open the recruitment portal by the first week of March.
Highlighting the urgency of the matter, the group emphasized the need to prevent the waste of the skills, knowledge, competencies, and resources invested in their training by the state.
“We, therefore, call on the Ministry of Finance to grant us financial clearance and the Ministry of Education as well as the Ghana Education Service to expedite actions by opening the portal for us to be recruited by the first week of March so that the skills, knowledge, competencies and the resources the state has invested in training us do not go in vain,” the statement concluded.
The introduction of the 4-year Bachelor of Education curriculum in colleges of education and their subsequent upgrade to fully-fledged universities in 2018 marked a significant shift in teacher training in Ghana.