Entrance Examination Into Colleges of Education Commences Next Academic Year

Teacher-trainees from Accra College of Education

 The government says there will be an entrance examination for prospective candidates seeking admission to Colleges of Education from 2022/2023 academic year.

This is a result of poorly written answers seen in a lot of teachers’ examination scripts for obtaining a teacher’s license, striking concern amongst stakeholders in the educational sector.

In an interaction with stakeholders at a conference on teacher training, the Chief Director at the Ministry of Education, Divine Ayidzoe stated the examination will be based on two core subjects – Mathematics and English.

“If we are talking about teacher quality, I think it is time. Even the licensure examination data shows that trained teachers who have written BECE, and WASSCE, and undergone scrutiny at UCC and UEW cannot write a single sentence correctly and worse things from other institutions. How are they going to teach? So there is a call that from next year, entrance examinations in Mathematica and English should be conducted so that the qualified candidates will be selected to enter into the Colleges of Education. We have to get the best to enter our Colleges of Education”. Mode of training at the Colleges will have to be monitored well, he said.

Colleges of Education admit candidates with grades from A1 to C6 made up of three core subjects including English Language Mathematics, Integrated Science or Social Studies plus three elective subjects. Candidates who get results even in one subject below the stated subjects do not qualify to enter into the Colleges of Education. 

The teacher licensure examination was introduced in 2018 to give teachers the requisite certification to practice in Ghana but became a subject of controversy in the country.

Some have suggested that instead of the conduct of the examination, the curriculum should be reviewed to make licensure a part of the course programme.

The government had insisted that there was nothing wrong with the process, but the opposition National Democratic Congress said the mode of delivery of the exams was not the best.

Recently, the Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, said his outfit is adopting new strategies aimed at reducing the failure rate recorded in the teacher licensure exams. This was in response to the fact that the majority of teachers who sat for the exams in March 2021 failed at least two courses in the exams.

The National Union of Ghana Students and Teacher Trainees has expressed concerns about the failure rate in the exams.

Dr. Yaw Adutwum has thus assured that the Ministry will engage stakeholders to address the situation.