Non-professional teachers must upgrade by December

About 30,000 non-professional teachers in pre-tertiary institutions have been given a window of opportunity to regularise their stay in the classroom by the end of the year.

Under a special dispensation through a collaboration between the National Teaching Council (NTC) and the Ghana Education Service (GES), the teachers have up to December to obtain the appropriate teaching registration and licensing.

They are made up of bachelor’s degree and non-bachelor's degree holders, who were recruited before the introduction of the licensure regime in 2018.

Under the arrangement, degree holders are required to enrol in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme in an accredited teacher education university to be issued a teachers’ registration and licence upon successful completion of the programme.

“This fast-track programme will last for 16 weeks and shall be exclusive for those who were teachers before September 30, 2018.

“All other categories of untrained teachers are required to attend a one-week Booth Camp training in designated institutions and be issued permanent registration upon successful completion of the training.

 This shall be exclusive for those who were teachers before September 30, 2018,” the Registrar of the NTC, Dr Christian Addai-Poku, told the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview in Accra.

Engagement with universities

He said the NTC had started engaging with four universities, namely; the University of Cape Coast (UCC), University of Education, Winneba (UEW), University for Development Studies (UDS) and the Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED).

Dr Addai-Poku said he was confident that by August 2024, the engagement would have been firmed up and the teachers concerned would have enrolled.

In July 2022, the council gave a special dispensation to in-service non-professional teachers employed before September 2018 to undergo an exemption exercise to secure the full licence given to such teachers within two years after upgrading to a professional status.

The exemption period will end by December 2024.

Assurance

Dr Addai-Poku gave an assurance that participants in those two programmes would not be required to write the licensure examination, “as this forms part of the transitional arrangements for those who were employed by the GES before the introduction of the licensure examination in 2018.”

Throwing more light on the arrangement, Dr Addai-Poku said the Council, as part of its mandate, conducted compliance checks in senior high schools in six regions in the country, focusing much on teachers’ compliance with the law on teacher licensing.

“The data revealed that 7,100 teachers in the senior high schools in the six regions do not possess the right credentials to be in the classroom,” he said. He said per the transitional arrangement, such teachers needed to be supported to obtain credentials that would qualify them for permanent registration and licensing.

Dr Addai-Poku explained that based on section 67(1) of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act (2020), Act 1023, which states that, “A person shall not practise as a teacher unless the person is registered as a teacher in accordance with this Act,” it was pertinent that immediate steps were taken to ensure that the teachers complied.

“In view of the above, the Council intends to deploy a special dispensation to register and licence all non-professional in-service teachers in the country,” he said. Dr Addai-Poku encouraged all teachers under that category to take advantage of the dispensation to regularise their stay in the classroom by the end of the year.

He reminded the affected teachers to take advantage of it, “because those who will not take up the opportunity before the end of December 2024, even if they upgrade themselves, they will be required to write the licensure examination.”