That, it said was unacceptable because the country had invested so much in the training of the teachers and yet, they were not recruited despite the many empty classrooms across the country.

The General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, who made the call, also described the failure of the teachers as “financial loss to the state” in view of the huge investment made in them, since without the license, there was no way they could teach in the country.

Mr Musah was reacting to a Daily Graphic report that out of 7,728 prospective teachers who sat again for the GTLE last month, only 1,277 passed.

 “I think this should be a wake-up call for all of us and there is the need for a national dialogue.

This is for the National Teaching Council (NTC) to present this particular results for the stakeholders to interrogate ,” he said in the interview.

The figure as released by the NTC represents 16.5 per cent of the candidates who sat again for the examination introduced to license teaching practitioners.

The candidates were examined in numeracy, literacy and professional skills.

A pre-release interview with the Registrar of the GTLE, Dr Christian Addai-Poku, indicated that all the candidates had sat for the exam at least twice, with some sitting for as many as nine times.

Meanwhile, sources within the other teacher unions said they would meet next week to come out with their position on the performance of would-be teachers in the licensure examination. 

Dialogue

Mr Musah described the result as a source of grave concern which needed a frank dialogue among stakeholders to find a solution to it.

 “There should be a national dialogue where all the players involved must be heard.

Why is it that we have such a mass failure?

That platform must be created for them to speak and the Ministry of Education would have to take this matter up seriously.

“If it is the case that the NTC is not doing something right, I believe that the scholars that would be present there would also speak to it.

This is because, they would want to know the marking scheme, know how it scores and get to know the test items and all that,” he said and that would inform how training should be done for the teachers so that the various institutions would not operate in isolation.

Bad investment?

Mr Musah was concerned that the outcome of the licensure exams did not reflect the investment being made in training educators.

“We are investing heavily in these institutions, particularly the colleges of education, to the extent of giving trainees allowances,” he said.

“Why should we spend millions of cedis to train people only for us to be told that at the end of the day, only 20 per cent passed.

“If you have investment would you continue to put it in such a product?,” he asked, and called for a well coordinated  training of the teachers at the colleges so as to ensure the progress of the country’s educational sector.

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In trying to find a solution to the problem, the GNAT General Secretary said there was the need to find out where the challenge was coming from; whether it was through the entry requirements and what training institutions (University of Cape Coast, University of Education, Winneba and the colleges of education) were doing in terms of content, among other things.

He said the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) needed to also help in the matter by finding out what the institutions were not doing right.

“I believe that this is a nice opportunity to correct it,” he emphasised.

SDG

Mr Musah said the country had made a promise to the international community under the Sustainable Development Goal, specifically goal four that no one should be left behind.

With some seven years to go, he wondered whether that goal would be achieved with the current situation of the teachers.

Addressing the issue, he said would help the country to meet the SDG Goal Four, as well as help to respond to the Human Capital Index Report of the World Bank.