We support teacher licensure exams – GNAT disagrees with Mahama

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has declared support for the Teacher Licensure Examination, which is used to license teachers to practice as professional teachers, indicating that the examination is an important benchmark in distinguishing professionals from non-professionals.

Former President John Dramani Mahama, in a recent Facebook live interaction, stated that when voted back into power, he would cancel the examination and instead enhance the quality of training in the various colleges and universities that train teachers.

But Daniel Affadu who is the Deputy General Secretary GNAT in his contribution to Multimedia’s NewsFile programme on Saturday stressed that GNAT supports the writing of examination but only desires that the cost of sitting it be borne by the government.

When asked directly by a host of the programme whether or not GNAT supported the examination, he was categorical: “Yes, we are for it. We will write [it].” explaining that the examination will among others deal with the phenomenon of unprofessional teachers who soil the reputation of the teaching profession.

“In Ghana, we only hear of fake lawyers being arrested. Have you ever heard of a fake teacher? No…So we want these benchmarks to be dealt with especially in the private schools.”

The licensure was introduced last year in fulfilment of laws governing the teaching profession in the country. Prior to the introduction, there was widespread opposition from teachers, especially those who were in colleges of education.