Over 6000 teachers fail license exams

As many as 6,451 prospective teachers who wrote the 2023 Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination (GTLE) last month failed while only 1,277 passed.

Some of the prospective teachers who failed the examinations had already sat for same examinations and failed more than once. While some were writing the exams for the second time, others were re-sitting the same exams for the eighth time.

In all 7,728 prospective teachers sat for the GTLE and the 1,277 who passed represents just 16.5 percent.

The results were released by the National Teaching Council.

Dennis Osei-Owusu, Public Relations Officer for the National Teaching Council told Citi Eye Witness News that the exams were basically to test the literacy and numeracy skills of the prospective teachers. In direct and simple language, the prospective teachers were being tested for their aptitude in English language and Mathematics.

Mr. Osei-Owusu explained further: “It’s a national security threat, we are having people going to the classrooms to teach our future generations and if I tell you the kind of things some of them wrote, you ask the kind of training they had in their various training institutions before they got here. Everything shows that most of them are not ready to be teachers, they just want to explore the system.”

Dennis Osei-Owusu explained that all hope is not lost for the filed candidates: “They still have the opportunity to write once more. We have introduced a reform, where the nature of the exams is going to change. And so they are doing the last one, they are going to be given a last opportunity to write, if they are not able to make it, then they have to join the reform and pick the exams again.

“Those who qualify for the reform are only teachers with bachelor’s degrees. If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree and you want to join the reform or subject-based up-grade, then they have to get a degree before they can come and sit for that one, that is the arrangements we have for them,” he added.

In a separate interview, with TV3, Dr. Christian Addai-Poku, Registrar of the GTLE, expressed worry about the development and its implications.

He said: ‘“As a Council, I think it is a worry to the whole nation but the fact still remains that we need the right calibre of people in our classrooms and we cannot afford to compromise on quality. Let me also underscore the examination that was written recently was exclusively for re-sitters some of whom have written the examination five times, eight times 10 times and they have still not been successful.”

Dr. Addai-Poku continued: “So currently, we are phasing out what we call the traditional Ghana Teacher Licensure examination and bringing in a new one, we are reforming it.

“So in the course of the reforms, we decided that fresh candidates were not required to write this licensure examination so we limited it exclusively to re-sitters, 7000 people who have been writing the exams and have not passed. When the results came it was not different from the previous records, they still could not make it.

“Some people are just not capable of passing and I think they are not cut out for the teaching profession, they might be very good in other areas but might not be very good in the art of teaching and so they may have to redirect their energies to other areas. Other than that they would have to do more to demonstrate to everybody that they are fit for the purpose of teaching,” Dr. Addai-Poku added.

The first-ever GTLE was written in September 2018.

The purpose of the examination is to enable qualified teachers to acquire a professional licence and also attract excellent young graduates from the universities and colleges of education who have the required professional knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to deliver effectively in schools.