Teacher training colleges, according to Dr. Christian Addai-Poku, Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC), are to blame for teachers failing their license exams in large numbers.
According to him, these institutions did not train the students in the requisite skills needed to manage and teach in classrooms.
This, he stressed makes the students victims.
“When you look at NTC data over time, at any point you will see an average of between 50% and 65% of the people who fail are distance and sandwich mode. Regular candidates tend to do better in the exam.
“The challenges are many but for me, I always say that the candidates are victims because the institutions are supposed to train them, and bring them out well refined and fit for purpose because you have admitted people for a programme, a professional programme,”
Speaking to the media, he explained that most institutions offered long-distance programmes and sandwich courses. However, NTC data showed that these people were in the majority of the failures recorded during the examination.
He stressed that these colleges failed at churning out students to fit well into the teaching profession.
Again, he added that if teachers did not have command over the English language and the skills needed to teach it was a major concern for the NTC.
“If a person is not well adapted in the knowledge, in the skills that the person is supposed to use in delivering, then we have a huge challenge. That is why these basic things that the people are not able to do is a problem,” he said.
Dr Addai- Poku said these failures started in 2018, since the licensure exam began, and the body has since taken steps to find lasting solutions to the problem.
Meanwhile, he said his outfit has been working behind close door to improve the process of the examination and reduce the failures.
This, he said had led to the NTC reforming the examination.
Key stakeholders have in the past week shared a similar view as the Registrar of NTC.
Notable amongst them is a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei who urged critics and the public to desist from creating the impression that all teachers in the country are hopeless.
‘We shouldn’t see all teachers as hopeless over a few failures in licensure exam’ – Prof Adei
His comment follows revelations by the NTC that about 83.5% of candidates failed the teachers’ licensure exams held in May 2023.
Speaking to the media, on June 22, Prof Adei noted that the number of teachers that failed the exam is a small section compared to the over 300,000 teachers in the country, many of whom have successfully passed the exam.
He added that the teachers that failed in the 2023 May exams are those who failed previously in their multiple attempts to get through the exams.
The NTC noted that out of the 7,728 teachers who participated in the re-sit exams, only 1,277 passed.
The assessment in numeracy, literacy, and professional knowledge is to enable qualified teachers to get a professional license, while attracting young graduates with the required professional knowledge and skills to teach.