Unlicensed teachers risk GES action-NTC warns

More than 42,000 teachers in Ghanaian classrooms risk action if they fail to regularise their professional status by the end of the year, the National Teaching Council has warned.

The Council says teachers without the required professional qualification and licence must enrol in an ongoing fast-track teacher education programme or face possible sanctions from their employer, the Ghana Education Service.

Francis Addai, the NTC’s Director of Licensing and Registration, said the Council wants all affected teachers to use the programme to become fully certified.

Speaking on Channel One Newsroom on Sunday, May 10, Mr Addai said the first group of teachers under the programme will complete their training in August, while a second cohort will begin in September and finish in December.

He said the Council expects unlicensed teachers to join the programme before the end of the year.

“We want to run this programme by the end of this year. The first cohort is completing in August, the second cohort will start in September and also complete in December, so we entreat all of them to join and become professional teachers,” he said.

Mr Addai warned that teachers who fail to obtain their licence may no longer be allowed to remain in the GES as non-professional teachers.

He said the NTC would notify the GES about those who fail to meet the requirement, after which the employer would decide what action to take.

The warning follows a nationwide survey by the Council which found that over 42,000 teachers in basic and senior high schools do not have professional teaching qualifications.

According to the NTC, more than 30,000 of them are in basic schools, while 12,279 are teaching in senior high schools.

The Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of unqualified teachers, with close to 4,000 identified. It was followed by Greater Accra and the Eastern Region.

To address the gap, the NTC, working with the Ministry of Education and five universities, has introduced an 18-week fast-track Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme.

The participating institutions are the University of Cape Coast, the University of Education, Winneba, the University for Development Studies, Valley View University, and the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development.

The programme is targeted at graduate teachers who are already in classrooms but do not have professional teacher training.

The first batch, made up of about 1,400 teachers, is expected to complete the course in August.

Registration for the second cohort is expected to open in June, with classes scheduled to begin in September.

The Council says the programme has been subsidised to GH¢5,000 for two semesters to make it accessible to teachers across the country.