GNAT protests proposed Basic Education Skills Examination Test

The Ghana National Association of Teachers, (GNAT,) has protested the introduction of the Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test proposed by the National Teaching Council (NTC).

According to the association, it is protesting against what it refers to as an attempt by the NTC to “craft a policy and arbitrarily foist it on the education enterprise.”

A statement issued by the GNAT and signed by its General Secretary, Thomas Nii Musah on Tuesday, 8 February 2022 noted that its attention has been drawn to a document being circulated on social media with the headline ‘National Teaching Council (NTC) Introduces Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test.’

The association further noted that the document which is purported to have been from the NTC suggests that applicants for admission into public training institutions will have to take an entrance examination dubbed ‘Ghana Basic Education Skills Examination Test,’ as part of measures to ensure that only qualified persons are admitted.

The association said: “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 statement continued that: “The NTC should cease being a Regulator and Implementer; it does not have the mandate to be so.”

It added: “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.”

Source: classfmonline.com