Teachers who failed the licensure examination would have to sit up and take advantage of the last opportunity to pass or lose any employment opportunity in the public school system.
Out of 7,728 prospective teachers who re-took the exam, only 1,277 passed, while as many as 6, 451 failed.
The assessment in numeracy, literacy and professional knowledge is to enable qualified teachers to get a professional license, while attracting young graduates with the required professional knowledge and skills to teach.
However, the exams continue to expose many lacking the right tools.
In an interview with the Registrar on Joy FM’s Midday news on Tuesday, the Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC), Christian Addai-Poku, says a last chance would be given to the teachers for a re-sit.
“They have one last opportunity because the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination is going through reform, and when the reform kicks in, the current dispensation will fade out,” he explained.
According to him, the reform provides three chances for teachers who fail the exam to redeem themselves.
The first was written last year, the second in May this year, with the last open window set for November of 2023.
Mr Addai-Poku added that, if the teachers do not make it through the last open window, they will be left with two other options.
“One – if the person is a degree holder, then the person would have to enter the new dispensation and write the GTLE under the new dispensation with different subjects and different content altogether.
“If the person is a diploma holder, then the person would have to apply for a top-up and get a degree before the person can write. Because per policy as of now, a minimum qualification to teach in Ghana is first degree,” he stressed.
When asked whether the mass number of failures has got to do with the test being difficult, he noted that was not the case. However, the passing of the exam has got to do with the competence of the teachers taking the test.
He described the failure rate recorded for this year as an ‘outlier’, adding that the record does not come as a surprise to the Council.
This, he stated, is due to the fact that the exam was exclusively meant for teachers who have not been successful after several attempts.
“As far as we are concerned, these examinations have been run for about five years now. So far, we have run 10 times of the examination and the pass rate has always hovered around 60 and 70 per cent,” he added.
He, therefore, urged the teachers to put in extra effort in order to pass the exam.