The National Teaching Council (NTC) says it may ask the Ministry of Education to extend the deadline for scrapping the teacher licensure exams. This is to give a final chance to teachers who may fail the recent exam, per 3News reports.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has instructed that the licensure exam be phased out by the end of August and instead be included in teacher training college curricula.
NTC Board Chair, Kwame Alovi, explained that allowing trainees to write the exam before leaving school would reduce failure rates. Many trainee teachers have complained that taking the exam after school is stressful, costly, and lacks support.
In 2023, 8,000 out of 20,000 failed the exam. In 2022, 44,000 out of 120,000 candidates were unsuccessful.
A committee has recommended, in line with the NDC’s manifesto, that the licensure exam be merged with final college exams and include practical teaching methods. This means future teachers will write the licensure exam before completing school.
However, teacher unions like GNAT and NAGRAT believe scrapping the exam entirely isn’t the answer. They support including the exam content in the training curriculum and proper planning for how and when the exam should be written.
Meanwhile, the Minister has allowed the final batch of 60,000 unlicensed teachers to write the exam this year. The NTC says it wants to give fair chances to those who’ve failed multiple times, completed national service, or recently graduated.
Talks are still ongoing, but reforms to the licensure exam system are clearly underway.
