The seven-member committee, which is chaired by an Educationist, Kwami Alorvi, was inaugurated at the MoE Conference Room in Accra last Friday.

It also comprised a representative from the National Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF) Prof. Samuel Atintonu;the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) representative, Moses Baman Amadu Snr and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) representative, Adokwi Ayikwei-Awulley.

Others were the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) representative, Michael Akanvibe Ayuraboya; an Education Consultant and Key Policy Advisor at Transforming Teaching, Education and Learning (T-TEL), Dr Samuel Awuku and the Director of Assessment and Examination at the National Teaching Council (NTC), Nimako Owusu Dorme. 

In his opening remarks, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, charged the committee with the responsibility to provide a suitable framework in helping transition from the licensure exams regime to a new one.

He indicated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), before last year’s election, promised to end the teachers’ licensure regime and would stay true to its commitment to fulfil the campaign promise.  

“It's true that the NDC campaigned on the manifesto promise that we will end licensure exams. We will keep faith with the electorate, but I need professional advice on this matter.

“That is why I'm putting this committee together to advise most appropriately how to work through the transition. A transition from a licensure exam regime to a new licensure exam. 
Resit; teachers’ promotion

The minister urged the committee to also consider a mechanism to help teachers who had previously been unable to pass the licensure exams in the previous administration to re-sit.

Mr Iddrisu argued that the opportunity might be “a problematic necessity” to offer opportunity to the trained teachers to redeem themselves and obtain the license.

He appealed to the committee to also assess the promotion challenges in the educational sector, as “many teachers are complaining about promotion, especially in the ladder from deputy director to director”.

The minister emphasised that a negotiation could be made for deputy directors due promotion to the rank of directors to be done with all consequential rewards although there might not be a designated office for them as the practice usually has been.

For his part, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Alorvi, expressed gratitude to the minister for the trust reposed in them to undertake the duty assigned to the committee.

He affirmed the commitment of the committee to undertake the initiative to help address the licensure exams problems and concerns of promotion by teachers across the country.  

“We will look at the issues very critically and present the appropriate measures that we can adopt.

Before the elections, the President, then a candidate, had held several meetings with stakeholders in the education sector and asked that the inputs from those meetings be incorporated into the manifesto.