The National Teaching Council has cautioned all teachers and employers that, effective 1st January, it will start to Prosecute & Deal with Unlicensed Teachers who are in Ghanaian classrooms.

According to the NTC, it will start applying the punitive sanctions contained in the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), Section 79, which stipulates that  “A person shall not knowingly or negligently employ a person as a teacher in an institution unless the teacher is registered under this Act. A person who contravenes this commits an offense and is liable to summary conviction to a fine of not less than 500 penalty units and not more than 1000 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not less than six months and not more than one year.”

Dr Christian Addai-Poku while speaking to Graphiconline disclosed that they will come after both unlicensed teachers and the owners of schools who are employing such a person.
The NTC according to him will be sending its inspectors to schools on unannounced checks. The inspectors will take data of teachers and cross-check if they have been licensed to teach.

The law does not put the punishment on those who are teaching only but also on the person who is employing – both public and private schools,” he said.

Teachers who are yet to acquire the NTC license have been advised to apply between now and December 2022. Schools that have unlicensed teachers have also been advised to encourage and help their teachers to be in good standing ahead of the January 2023 enforcement of the law.

You have to apply for a temporary licence which is renewable for two years. If you don’t do that, and we come to the school, we will not only prosecute the teacher but we would also prosecute the person who employed the teacher”.

“Even before you enter a school, ideally you should have a licence before you are employed. But if you are already in the system then get that licence before NTC’s deadline takes effect,” he said, adding that it would be good for proprietors to also support their teachers to be licensed else they would have to dismiss them in order not to fall foul of the law.

Asked why the law was not enforced all this while, he said the council took the time from 2018 to sensitize teachers to the need to be licensed although at that time the law was not passed, “but it was to educate them on the forthcoming law,” which was subsequently passed in 2020.

Immediately the law was passed, Dr Addai-Poku said, the council started with the registration of in-service teachers and so had gone round the whole country moving from region to region, district to district registering teachers and that process was completed just this month.

He emphasized that a teacher could either have a provisional, temporary or full license in order to qualify to teach. Now that you know the NTC to Prosecute & Deal with Unlicensed Teachers from January 2023, it is time to be proactive as a teacher if you belong to this category of teachers.

Source: Educationghana.org