NTC to introduce entrance test for College of Education admission

The National Teaching Council (NTC) this year will introduce an entrance test for WASSCE for School graduates seeking admission into any of the 46 public Colleges of Education to study various teacher education programmes.

Registrar of NTC, Addai Poku at a stakeholders’ meeting on the reform of the conduct of the teacher licensure test said the test dubbed Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test (GBEST) will access students in numeracy and literacy.

Prospective students who become successful at the Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test (GBEST), Dr Christian Addai Poku said will be given admission to pursue teacher education courses in public Colleges of Education (CoE).

“The GBEST will, thus, be used as the entry assessment for the trainee teachers and after completion, the students will be made to write a level and subject-based licensure examination to be qualified as professional teachers,” he stated.

Dr Addai told stakeholders the new entrance exams form part of reforms being proposed by his outfit to harmonise teacher education admissions in the country and also improve teacher education as part of the educational reforms.

The Registrar of the National Teaching Council (NTC) further said the reforms are to ensure that prospective students who applied to be trained as teachers have the required qualifications and disposition to become teachers.

In another development, the National Teaching Council (NTC) says it will this year introduce an indexing fee of GH¢ 50 per candidate before being allowed to sit for the compulsory Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE).

Speaking at a stakeholder meeting on the licensure test reform early this week, the Executive Director of the Teaching Council said candidates who are not indexed will not be permitted to sit for the compulsory examination for teachers.

“From this year, NTC intends to implement the indexing fee of 50 Ghana cedis per student as approved by Parliament under fees and charges. Very soon, candidates who are not indexed will not be permitted to write the GTLE,” he stated.