Teacher Licensure Exams: Education Ministry Constitutes Committee To Investigate Mass Failure

The Ministry of Education has constituted a seven-member committee to probe the abysmal performance of prospective teachers who sat for the 2023 national licensure examination.

This comes after 6,481 out of 7,728 candidates who participated failed the exams. This implied that 83.5 per cent of the total number of candidates failed the examination.

Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who made the announcement in Accra, said the committee is also expected to make recommendations on ways to solve the problem.

“The committee is looking at the extent to which the Ghana Teacher Licensure Exam is aligned with the National Teacher Standards and other supporting policies or frameworks such as the pre-tertiary curriculum,” he explained.

Dr Adutwum said they would also look at the quality of students being admitted into the teacher education institutions relative to the grade and programme of specialization at the senior high schools.

Meanwhile, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has expressed its support for the committee.

According to the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Tanko Musah, the number of teachers who fail the exams yearly is worrying.

“Once we have this committee in place, it is our hope that at the end of the day, whatever report comes out, all of us should be given the opportunity to discuss the report and the way forward. Because it is very, very important – you cannot write an exam and have 85% of your people failing and taking it for granted,” Mr Musah said.

The government introduced the Teachers Licensure Exams in 2019 to improve the professional standard and status of teachers in the country.

The National Teaching Council is mandated by the Education Act 2008 (Act 778), section 9, to improve the professional standing and status of teachers and to license and register teachers in Ghana.