Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has disclosed that, government is set to issue out licenses to qualified teachers. According to him, the issuance will begin with the Greater Accra Region.

Speaking at the launch of the Teacher licensing and Registration program, he explained that, the government is keen on professionalizing the teaching career and ensuring it’s being properly regulated.

“I’m here to launch the registration and licensing of teachers. We know the teacher trainees have gone through this and they got the provisional license. This begins the formal process of giving them a regular licensing and also ensuring that those who were not required to do the exams also go through the registration and the licensing. So that, they can also know that they are part of the group of people.

“In the 21^st century as I always say, education is not just a piece of the whole puzzle. If we are going to change our fortunes, it’s going to be because our education system improved and performed its role. But how can we do that without looking at the teacher of the whole education process to make sure that the teacher is professionalized? Today begins a major milestone in the history of our nation”.

Dr. Adutwum further noted that for the first time, the ministry is going to “ensure that every teacher is registered”.

“When there are any bottlenecks, it will be removed. I want people to understand that the National Teaching Council is facilitating the process not to disadvantage anybody”.

Special teachers’ portal

The sector minister further revealed that, his outfit will set up a special portal to deal with challenges of teachers.

Additionally, he maintained that issues such as delay in salary payment affects the effectiveness of teachers. As such, those matters will be addressed on the portal via the collaborative effort with the Ghana Education Service.

Dr. Adutwum noted that, his ministry will set up case manager to address these issues. He further noted that, the case managers along with GES will ensure the complaints are resolved.

“So, as we talk about professionalization of the teacher, we also have to do everything to make sure the teacher’s job is made easier. Therefore, the President has directed, that as the minister, I do everything possible to ensure that teacher welfare is at the front burner of what I do. The portal that I have discussed, is going to be one of those things. Because I really want to remove the impediment in the way of the teachers, so that they can do their job as expected of them”.

Regulation of teachers

On his part, Executive Secretary for the National Teachers Council (NTC), Dr. Christian Addai-Poku, consented that teachers will be regulated.

In lieu of this, he noted that the NTC, is mandated by education regulatory bodies to regulate and license teachers.

“We should have code of ethics and code of practice which must be implementable and we must have a regulator to do that. There must be standards that the regulator will have to set. When the regulator sets the standards, the regulator should be able to know that they are properly implemented.

“When you talk about a profession, that group of people must have body of knowledge and skillset that is exclusive to them. So, anybody practicing teaching must meet that standard and that is what National Teaching Council is set to do”.