Mass teacher licensure exam failure national security threat – NTC

Following the mass failure recorded in the 2023 Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) resit, a spokesperson for the National Teaching Council (NTC), Dennis Osei Owusu says the unfortunate incident is a threat to national security.

“I am saying it’s a national security threat because these are teachers who will be in our classrooms to train our future generation. If you had the opportunity to change some of the responses on the exams, you would be amazed,” he said.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for NTC responsible for the conduct of the licensure examination attributed the high failure rate to the lack of seriousness on the part of candidates and said, many could not answer basic-level questions.

The National Teaching Council (NTC) spokesman emphasised that failed tertiary graduates who are not satisfied with their Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) results can apply for remarking of their examination scripts.

“If you’re a graduate and you think you failed the national examination for teachers and you don’t understand, come for remarking. We believe we are doing the right thing,” Osei said in the interview monitored by AcademicWeek.com.

Dennis Osei Owusu’s comment comes after 1,277 out of the 7,728 tertiary institution graduates who sat for the first phase of the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) resit only passed the examination conducted by the NTC.

The figure, the Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC), Dr Christian Addai Poku said represents 16.5 per cent of the candidates who sat again for the examination, introduced to licensed teaching practitioners.

Dr Addai-Poku, who expressed concern about the high failure rate, explained that those affected had one more chance to re-write the teacher’s examination in the latter part of the year before its format and content changed.

The Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC) told the Graphic newspaper that those who would fail again would have to go for the revised GTLE, known as the Subject-based GTLE, which would take off later this year.

“We are reforming and restructuring the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) and we will start it this year with those who have qualified to write it for the first time,” Dr Addai Poku told the Daily Graphic in the interview.

The Executive Director of the Council said unlike the current examination where the candidates were examined in numeracy, literacy and professional skills, this time around, they would have to be examined in a specific area of speciality.