Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, May 19, 2016
The proposed licensing of teachers scheduled to commence in the
2016/2017 academic year appears to have hit a snag following the suspension of
discussions with the government by the teacher unions.
The three leading unions - Ghana National Association of Teachers
(GNAT), National Union of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of
Concerned Teachers (CCT) - are accusing the government of failing to
incorporate their concerns into the would-be policy.
The government, through the Ghana Education Service (GES), wants to
introduce the licensing regime under the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) but the
teacher unions insist that there is a much better way to go about the issue.
When implemented, the Act will ensure that teachers are licensed
before being engaged by the GES to teach in the country; and every graduate of
a public teacher training college would have to undergo what is called a
compulsory one year on-the-field programme to qualify for the licence.
Public Relations Officer of the GES, Reverend Jonathan Bettey, told Citi FM on Tuesday that a review process
was ongoing for the commencement of the new licensing regime and added that it
was aimed at improving the quality of teachers at the pre-tertiary level.
“The licensing system has come to make our profession more respectable.
If you receive a licence, not only certificate, it means that you are a
professional teacher who is qualified to teach in any organization as far as
teaching is concerned,” Rev. Bettey explained.
He added that a lot of work was being undertaken to produce results
for the review which ended yesterday, to pave the way for the implementation.
In spite of the effort by the GES to facilitate the rolling out of
the programme on time, the Vice President of NAGRAT, Angel Karbonu, said on the
same network that even though he and his colleagues were invited, the
government did not incorporate their concerns into the programme and insisted
that they were not satisfied with what was going.
“The suggestions that we have made have not been carried on board
and that’s why the three teacher unions have boycotted the meeting.
“If you are talking about licensing teachers, we would have to
negotiate the tenets of the licensing and to ensure job security, what goes into
the licensing, how the licence comes to bear on the job security of the
teacher,” he proposed.
Mr. Karbonu further suggested that some
individuals might be furthering their own agenda with no regard for the
teachers. “It looks as if people are carrying their own personal agenda without
taking into consideration the input that has been given by the teacher unions,”
he observed.
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