Continuous Professional Development not new policy: NTC says programme established in law

The National Teaching Council (NTC) has said continuous professional development (CPD) is not a new policy being forced on teachers.

“The CPD is entrenched in section 60 of the new Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023).

“The three recognised teacher unions; the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT),the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concern Teachers (CCT) have frequently been engaging the NTC and Ghana Education Service (GES) on the CPD framework.

“They may still have issues with the implementation process but they are handling it maturely,” the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NTC, Dennis Osei-Owusu, told the Daily Graphic.

Section 60 of the Act mandates NTC, "to develop and promote continuing professional education in the teaching profession."

According to the PRO, “anyone who cannot make meaning of this clause clearly has no business issuing fallacious statements to court disaffection for the GES as an implementating agency, the NTC as a regulator and the functional teacher unions (CPD providers).

He dismissed the perception that the service providers were using the CPD as a money-making venture, insisting that a specific category of directors of education were required to pay a GH¢75 charge.

He explained that the total CPD points that teachers were expected to accrue each year for a period of three years were based on the rank and grade of the teacher.

CPD points

The PRO said the total CPD points differed across all ranks and that explained why teachers on the rank of Senior Superintendent II, and Assistant Director II, were expected to accrue 70 and 85 points respectively.

“A teacher can access training from the employer — GES, either at the school level through professional learning communities (PLC) and these trainings, which come with no charges, also generate CPD points for teachers,” he said.

He said the CPD framework was online and readily available on the NTC teacher portal, adding that a lot of the NTC approved CPD service providers had been taking teachers through the framework.

“I am confident that recognised teacher unions will work with educational authorities to uplift the image of teachers in Ghana,” Mr Osei-Owusu said.