The teaching field should be respected -Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah

Professor Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, the President of Dominion University College, has called on the government to make the teaching profession a desired one.

According to him, the government needs to formulate a targeted policy that will better the lives of teachers not just financially but socially as well, to inspire and attract more people to join the profession.

His concerns follow the massive failure of students in the recent teacher licensure examination.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, on Saturday, Prof Nsowah-Nuamah said that currently, while there are large numbers of people joining the profession, most of them have no passion or motivation because they see it as a last resort to securing a job in the future.

However, bettering the lives of teachers and righting the education system at colleges of education will, according to Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah, improve the caliber of people applying to enter colleges of education and subsequently increase the quality of teachers churned out of these colleges.

“Now, if you get a graduate, a teacher perhaps and you compare him to another graduate doing something else, you will see that the teacher is not paid very well. So, the idea that ‘your reward is in heaven’ now does not play any role at all.”

“Perhaps the ministry should think of a way of awarding teachers not only financially, but other incentives that they could create to make the profession very attractive. We got attracted because those we saw in the villages were people we could emulate. So if people now can see ‘Oh if you’re a teacher these are the things that can happen to you, these are the benefits, these are this.’ I think you’ll get a lot more people who will be more interested in going into that field.

“After sieving, you’ll still get a lot of people who can still enter. So there should be a national policy to make the teaching field or the teaching profession a better place.”

Some have blamed the colleges of education for failing to adequately train these students to pass the exams.

However, Political Scientist, Prof. Gyampo, cautioned Ghanaians to approach their judgment of the massive failure of prospective teachers in licensure exams in order not to discourage and insult those who seek to be part of the noble profession of teaching.

According to the examining body, the National Teaching Council, 83.5% of those who took the licensure examinations failed.

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