Trained teachers who have passed their licensure examination and successfully ended their national service will only be employed by the Ghana Education Service based on declared vacancies, Education Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh disclosed.

“Those who passed the licensure exams at the end of their national service,” he told Parliament Tuesday “shall then apply to the Ghana Education Service for employment based on declared vacancies.”

Dr Opoku Prempeh made the disclosure in an answer to a question filed by the Member of Parliament for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe.

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe wants to know the steps being taken by the Education Ministry to absorb all privately trained teachers into the education sector as is being done by the Ministry of Health.

In his answer, Dr Prempeh stated that for the first time in the history of Ghana’s education, the government posted both public and private trained teachers, observing that a total of 14, 160 trained teachers from the colleges of education both public and private were posted by the GES in 2017.

The figure was of 11, 733 from the public colleges and 2,427 from the private colleges.

The private colleges involved were; Methodist college of education, Akim Oda, 54, Jackson college of education, Kumasi, 2084, Christ The Church College of education, Kumasi, 46, Cambridge College of education, Kumasi, 9.

The rest are; St Ambrose college of education, Dormaa (which has since been absorbed by the public education system), 31, Holy spirit college of education, Ho, 92, MCcoy college of education, Nadowli, 86 and SDA college of education, Agona-Ashanti, 55.

The combine posting, he said was after a reminder to the GES by the National Service Secretariat of its Act, which requires graduate of all tertiary institutions to undertake national service before seeking formal employment.

“As a result all graduates of colleges of education including those from public and private were registered by the national service secretariat and in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service to undertake their national service which they are currently undergoing,” he stated, adding: “Mr Speaker, this was the first time ever that graduate of private colleges of education were directly posted by Ghana Education Service.”