As part of efforts to ensure only licensed professional teachers teach in pre-tertiary schools, the National Teaching Council has started NTC its non-professional teachers training for over 3,400 private school teachers in Accra.
In an interview with Graphic, the NTC’s Deputy Registrar, Lawrence Sarpong, stated that non-trained instructors are already teaching in various basic schools and institutions but have not yet received professional training to become teachers.
According to the National Teaching Council Registrar, the training will allow them to receive an authorization certificate, allowing them to continue teaching in their particular schools for three years, renewable each year.
“The course is offered on weekends at four locations throughout the region: the Accra College of Education Demonstration School, Odorgonno Senior High School (SHS), Ashaiman SHS, and Queensland International.”
The course framework includes instruction in child psychology, classroom management, learner evaluation, lesson note preparation, behavioural theorems in education, and other essential pedagogies.
Registration is still open, and all instructors in this category are urged to participate by enrolling on the council’s website for a GH250.00 cost,” the Council’s Registrar informed the Daily Graphic.
Lawrence Sarpong noted that because the teachers were prospective professional instructors, the council thought it fit to build their capacity and set them on the path to becoming professionals.
The Deputy Registrar noted that it was part of the Ghana Teaching Council’s attempts to simplify the system in order to enhance access to excellent education while simultaneously creating jobs.
After three years of annual license renewal, these trained non-professional teachers must pursue a professional education programme to become professional teachers and pass the teacher licensure exam to continue teaching.
If they are unable to complete teacher training within three years after being authorized, it implies they willfully do not want to be teachers, and the legislation authorizes us to remove them from the classroom,” he explained.
Francis Addai, NTCs Director in Charge of Licensing and Registration of Teachers, stated that the initiative was a countrywide effort that will continue until the end of November 2023.
He called on school heads employing individuals who are not professional teachers or who haven’t undergone the training to receive the authorization to teach, to help such teachers and that persons whiteout the training are liable according to the law.
The Director in Charge of Licensing and Registration of Teachers at NTC, Francis Addai, explained that the programme was a nationwide exercise adding “We are doing it across the country, and we hope to complete the region by the end of November,” he said.
“If you’re a school head and you’re engaging any individual who isn’t a professional teacher or who hasn’t undergone this training to receive the authorization to teach, you’re liable according to the law,” the NTC official stressed
The NTC professional teacher license issued to Ghanaian teachers qualifies such teachers to be employed and recognized as a professional teacher across the globe.
In a related education news, the GES has taking steps to fish out all JHS1 and JHS2 student in public and private schools who sat the 2023 BECE.
READ: JHS1 and 2 students who wrote 2023 BECE blacklisted from Free SHS
It seeks to prevent such students from being enrolled into any Free SHS school as a way to deter future attempts by parents and school authorities to engage in such an act.
Private schools are often at the receiving end of such deeds as parents move their wards to public JHS to be registered for the BECE.