Opinions of Friday, 21 July 2023

Columnist: Sir Omega

Ghana Teacher Licensure Exams(GTLE) sheme must be reviewed

Teachers writing exams Teachers writing exams

The implementation of the Teacher Licensure Exams is one of the ways of making teaching as a profession. Let ask ourselves, what is license?

License is a formal permission from a governmental or other constituted authority to do something, as to carry on some business or profession.

Hence, the introduction of the Ghana Teacher Licensure Exams (GTLE) has deviated from its foremost reasons and rationale and it has crack to a vast problematic to Tertiary students and Ghanaians at large.

GTLE has again swerved from its aims and rationale in the direction of decreasing the enrollment of teachers dispatched per year which also increases the redundancy of the country. Just recently, 6,481 teachers failed in GTLE which constitute 16.5 percent of candidates who sat for the exams.

With this mass fiasco, the pass mark scheduled was 50% and above.

Just currently, the percentage of pass mark has been increased from 50% to 70%. Brethren, how much mess d0 you think will be 2023 GTLE results?

The implementation of this GTLE must be reviewed. I think writing GTLE exams a year after a course of study is not an accurate way. It must be added to the semester basis examination so before one graduates.

On the other hand, GTLE can be written immediately after writing your last paper or it should be added to the entrance exams which would be written before one is admitted into a said institution.

Four consecutive years in Tertiary institution is not easy; struggling all way to pay your school fees, buying of teaching and learning materials, and all kind of stress that goes in and out. Besides the system at the Tertiary institutions even works more effective than that of the system of the GTLE scheme.

UCC, UEW, KNUST, UDS and UG who are mainly accredited in running the examination and assessment of the 46 colleges of education in this country has it own way of scrutinising its system academically.

After passing through all these trauma, you will see a fellow graduate for about 2 to 3 years unemployed just because of GTLE scheme.

What a mess is this?