The Ghana National Association of Teachers, (GNAT,) has said its attention has been drawn to a document circulating on social media with a heading
The Ghana National Association of Teachers, (GNAT,) has said its attention has been drawn to a document circulating on social media with a heading ‘National Teaching Council (NTC) Introduces Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test,’ purported to originate from the NTC.
The document, according to GNAT indicates that, ‘The National Teaching Council, as part of measures to ensure students admitted into various public teacher training institutions are qualified has introduced an entrance exam dubbed Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test.’
GNAT said it protests against the NTC, “for, once again, attempting to craft a policy and arbitrarily foist it on the education enterprise.
“We wish to draw the attention of the NTC to Section 60 (a), Part 3 of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020, which stipulates the functions of the NTC, as advising the Minister (for Education) on matters relating to the professional standing … of teachers, among others, and allow the Ghana Education Service (GES) to play its role as lead agency for the implementation of approved policies and programmes at the pre-tertiary level, and not to subsume it.
“The NTC should cease being a Regulator and Implementer; it does not have the mandate to be so,” a statement signed by General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Nii Musah said on Tuesday February 8.
GNAT further said it is “tired and wearied with this idea of throwing out polices and programmes into the educational milieu without consultations with bodies which matter.
“We therefore register our frustrations with such off-the-head pronounments, and call for immediate stop to them, forthwith.
“We wish to reiterate, that we are not against reforms to education; we stand for the best for education in the country; however, we won’t stand for policies, programmes and pronouncements off-the-cuff; the Agencies vested with the powers must be allowed to work, and come out, only when the proper consultations have taken place and consensus reached. We ask for nothing more than this.”
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