Private school teachers to get license registration centre

The National Teaching Council after it announced to phase out unlicensed teachers from classrooms in 2023 has urged all private schools Association to open license registration centres for its members to be given a temporary license.

Registrar of the Council, Dr Christian Addai Poku at a stakeholder engagement with the leadership of the various private schools’ Associations said all teachers have by December 31, 2022, to apply for the license or be sacked.

“The Associations have been mandated to open registration centres to assist in the registration of the non-professional teachers to be given a temporary licence after these teachers have satisfied the agreed standards,” he stated in a post.

The Associations are the Ghana National Association Of Private Schools (GNAPS), National Council of Private School Teachers (NCOPST), Independent Schools and Teachers Council (ISTEC) and the Ghana National Council Of Private Schools (GNACOPS).

In a related development, the Executive Director of the NTC has said a teaching licensing law to ensure unlicensed private and government school teachers are removed from classrooms has been passed by the government.

In a discussion with the Daily Graphic newspaper, the NTC official said unqualified teachers have between now and December 31, 2022, to possess a licence before they can teach in any school as failure will result in their prosecution.

“Now, we are moving into the licensing enforcement stage and from January 2023, anybody who does not have the authorisation (licence) to teach, the NTC will deal with that person because the law is clear; you can be prosecuted for not owning a licence and teaching,” he told Graphic.

Citing Section 79 of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) Mr Addai stated that, “A person shall not knowingly or negligently employ a person as a teacher in an institution unless the teacher is registered under this Act.

According to him, any person who contravenes this commits an offence and is liable to summary conviction to a fine, not less than 500 penalty units and not more than 1000 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not less than six months and not more than one year.

In line with the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, the National Teaching Council (NTC) Director said his outfit effective the 2023 academic year will go after teachers in the classrooms without a licence and not applying for it.

“We would be sending inspectors to schools to go and check. So we move to the school and take the data of the teachers to find out whether everybody is licensed

The law does not put the punishment on those who are teaching only but also on the person who is employing – both public and private schools,” Dr Christian Addai Poku told the Accra-based news publisher.

Asked if the license is mandatory for teachers in the private education sector, he said “If you are teaching in the Ghanaian classroom, you are part of it, so both public and private school teachers.

If you are a private school teacher and you don’t have a full licence, you have to apply for a temporary license. between now and December this year, “you still have the right to apply if you are not a qualified teacher,” Addai Poku stated.