The National Teaching Council (NTC) says there is no political pressure on it to suspend the teacher licensure examinations.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Teaching Council, Dennis Osei-Owusu, in a Citi News interview on the matter, said the exam was postponed to 1st and 2nd October due to changes in the timetable of continuing students of the Colleges of Education.
He added that the NTC, as an entity, is fully committed to delivering on its mandate to the fullest and that there is no political pressure on them from the government to cancel the exams.
“It is just a week change from the date of writing the licensure exams and the issue out there that we are suspending it is totally false. We have not suspended licensure exams and I don’t think we have any plans of suspending licensure exams now”, he stated.
He added, “there is no pressure on us to suspend it. NTC as an entity is in charge and we are fully geared towards implementing our mandate as part of our mandate of professionalizing teaching in Ghana”.
He said, there was a lot of stakeholder consultation where they agreed that teachers yet to join the teaching service will write exams, so they join the mainstream teachers when they are recruited, and so they don’t have any idea in suspending the exams and there is no pressure on them to suspend it.
According to him, teachers were now going to enjoy professional allowance as a result of NTC professionalizing teaching in Ghana and, apart from that, the main thing they were looking at was to obtain global recognition in Ghana.
“Now we liaise with international teacher organizations, So the only thing you do is just key in the PIN of the teacher on that platform and all the details of the teacher, who is already licensed, and all the details will pop up and that person will be given the opportunity to work anywhere in the world”, he added.
Meanwhile, a National Democratic Congress’ spokesperson on education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, also speaking on Eyewitness News, debunked the response by NTC.
He added that the NDC’s sources within the NTC indicate that the licensure exams will be suspended.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
