The National Teaching Council (NTC) indicates that more than 42,000 teachers in Ghana’s primary and secondary education system do not hold professional teaching qualification certificates. A National survey showed that over 12,279 instructors at Senior High School level and more than 30,000 teachers at basic level are currently teaching in schools without the needed professional certification, the NTC revealed.
Francis Addai, the Director for licensing and registration at NTC told the press at the matriculation ceremony for students who were enrolling for a Special Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme at Kumasi that the NTC has moved to respond to the development by instituting a swift teacher-training programme, lasting 18 weeks.
“Following our study which covered all senior high schools across the country, we discovered that there are at least 12,279 teachers currently in our classrooms, who do not have the professional qualification for teaching. More than 30,000 teachers at basic school are also in the classrooms”, Francis Addai stated.
Francis Addai said the project, undertaken collaboratively with the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED), Valley View University (VVU), and the University for Development Studies (UDS), is designed to offer the qualified degree holder who is already in the classroom the professional qualification and the required teaching license as required by the law.
“In a bid to curb the issue, we have partners to roll out the special Postgraduate Diploma in Education course for degree holders to enable them acquire the professional qualification and license from NTC per the requirement. “The first cohort comprising about 1,400 teachers are currently undertaking the programme and will be exiting in August this year. We expect the next batch to open up for applications in June and commence their courses in September.
This is the fastest and cheapest mode for teachers who intend to upgrade themselves to become professionals as NTC is heavily sponsoring this programme by way of the fees as GH5,000 for two semesters. “Currently, teachers without the required professional certificate and license will not be allowed to be in the classrooms by law,” he added.
The programme has been set up in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE) to improve the teaching quality of instructors across the country.
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