NTC ‘threatens’ failed licensure exam candidates with court order

The National Teaching Council (NTC) says candidates who sat for the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) but could not pass can apply for a remarking of their scripts other than that they can take the Teaching Council to court.

A spokesman for NTC, Dennis Osei-Owusu in an interview monitored by AcademicWeek.com said the teacher licensure exam scripts are marked according to the marking scheme, thus there is no way his outfit will mark a candidate down.

“If you think you failed and you’re not comfortable and you think you did well, our doors are opened for remarking. You can even take us to court; we’re ready to face you. Your scripts are there to show if you really failed on purpose or if you did well and we decided to fail you,” he said on Joy Prime’s morning show.

The Public Relations Officer also called on Ghanaians to support the teacher licensure examination for pre-service teachers from tertiary education institutions to ensure only qualified individuals are recruited to teach in the classroom.

Asked what contributed to the mass failure of tertiary graduates who sat for the GTLE, the spokesperson stated that some prospective teachers despite their desire to enter the teaching profession lack the necessary expertise and preparation for the job.

“Somebody has taken this exam nine times and still the person failed. Last Friday, the person came to my office through someone who knows me and thought maybe I could be of help. When he came, I tried engaging him, and he’s somebody who is not ready for the work…”

That’s why I was telling you that most of our people got here and we still don’t understand why we got here. That’s why we’re calling for the whole nation to help us look into how they got here,” Mr Dennis said in the interview.

His comment comes after the Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC) said about 84 per cent of the tertiary graduates who sat for the 2023 edition of the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) resit could not pass.

Speaking to the Dialy Graphic newspaper, the Registrar of the Council said out of 7,728 prospective tertiary graduates who sat again for the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE) last month in this academic year 1,277 passed.

The figure, the Executive Director of NTC responsible for the administration of the teacher licensure exams said represents 16.5 per cent of the candidates who sat again for the examination, introduced to licensed teaching practitioners.

Africa Education Watch citing statistics of the licensure examination also said about 87% of re-sit candidates failed again in Literacy adding that overall, there were 14 cases of exam malpractices- impersonation and copying from mobile phones.