The National Teaching Council (NTC) and the Ghana Education Service bring to the attention of all non-professional teachers in basic and second-cycle institutions, the need to take advantage of our special dispensation to obtain the appropriate teaching registration and licensing.
In reference to a letter dated July 26, 2022, the Council gave a special opportunity to in-service non-professional teachers (teachers employed before September 2018) to undergo an exemption exercise to secure the full license given to in-service professional teachers within two years after upgrading to a professional status. The exemption period will come to an end by December 2024.
The Council as part of its mandate conducted compliance checks in senior high schools in six regions of the country focusing much on teachers’ compliance with the law on teacher licensing. The data revealed that 7100 teachers in the senior high schools of the six regions do not possess the right credentials to be in the classroom. It is estimated that there are about 30,000 of such teachers in the employment of Ghana Education Service and Ghana TVET Service.
These are mostly non-professional teachers who were employed before the coming into force of the licensure regime in 2018. Per the transitional arrangement, such teachers need to be supported to obtain credentials that will qualify them for permanent registration and licensing.
Based on section 67(1) of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act (2020), Act 1023 which states that ‘A person shall not practise as a teacher unless the person is registered as a teacher in accordance with this Act’, it is pertinent that immediate steps are taken to ensure that the teachers are in compliance.
In view of the above, the Council intends to deploy a special dispensation to register and license all non-professional in-service teachers in the country. You are therefore required to register and undergo a prescribed training that will lead to permanent registration and issuance of the appropriate licence to practise.
For the sake of this exercise, the non-professional teachers are categorized as follows:
- Bachelor’s degree holders
- Non-bachelor’s degree certificate holders ( HND, Diploma, WASSCE, SSCE, O’/A’ Level, NAPTEX, MSLC etc.).
The arrangement for their training shall take the following form:
- All degree holders shall enrol in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme in an accredited teacher education university and will be issued a teachers’ registration and licence upon successfully completing the programme. This fast-track programme will last 16 weeks and shall be exclusively for those who were teachers before 30th September 2018.
- All other categories of untrained teachers are required to attend a (1) week of training (Booth camp) in designated institutions and be issued permanent registration upon successful completion of the training. This shall be exclusively for those who were teachers before 30th September 2018.
- Participants in these two programmes will not be required to write the licensure examination, as this forms part of the transitional arrangements for those who were employed by the Ghana Education Service before the introduction of the licensure examination in 2018.
Detailed arrangements, including fees, shall be communicated in due course.
All non-professional in-service teachers are required to use the link below
https://ntc.gov.gh/dnpt to provide their details.