Licencing teachers good, timing bad – Franklin Cudjoe

Founding President of the IMANI Center of Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe says, although a decision for teachers to write licencing examination before they are allowed to practice is good, the timing may be wrong.

He said teachers already feel burdened and not well catered for by the government, therefore any decision that does not address these fundamental issues, but seek to impose more on them will be resisted.

“Continuous professional development is a very important matter in every institution. So, ordinarily we shouldn’t be angry over this matter.

“But teachers who are being rebellious of this particular agenda, may be saying that already they have challenges, challenges of their own sustenance, challenges of their own livelihoods which sometimes mean that they are housed in rural areas,” he said on Joy FM’s Super morning Show.

An announcement by the National Teachers Council that all teachers will be required to undergo a special examination, acquire a licence before they start teaching has angered a lot of teachers.

Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service, Rev Jonathan Bettey said in an interview that “before we recognize you as a professional teacher, you will need to be licenced.”

The decision, he said, is part of the sector’s professional development and it applies to both trainee teachers graduating from public and private teacher training colleges.

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) is threatening to kick against the decision for teachers to write a special examination for their licenses if they are not consulted.

According to Vice President of the Association, Angel Kabonu, the move is an imposition on teachers who have gone through professional training.

Mr Cudjoe said, although the timing may be wrong, there is a multiplicity of issues that ought to be dealt with before the issues of quality teaching is addressed.

Nonetheless, he thinks that “it is very important that it is done. Just that they now have to balance it with the very audacious promises they have made which will require some amount of teachers.”

He stressed that because teachers take students through life lessons so it is important that they go through an upgrade periodically.

“If they themselves are preparing us to take exams which sometimes determine how efficient our educational system is, every now and then, there are new things they themselves have to know so that they can teach properly, so I don’t think it is a bad idea at all,” he said.

Credit: myjoyonline