No graduate teacher employed in the last 5 years – Minister

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has disclosed that no graduate teacher has been employed to teach in any public school in the country for the past 5 years.

In an interview on Accra-based Peace FM, Dr Opoku Prempeh said the Ministry has rather been employing Teachers with Diploma Certificates. This is due to the automatic appointment policy the Ministry has with the teachers.

Dr Opoku Prempeh described this situation as wrong and unacceptable. He added that all teachers must be given a basic education qualification so that the country employs as much of teachers that it can.

Dr Opoku Prempeh further disclosed that the Nana Addo-led government will soon upgrade all Colleges of Education into Degree awarding Universities.

According to him, this forms part of the government’s programme to empower teachers to give off their best.

“Currently when a student does a Diploma Course he or she spends 3 years and does a top-up course of 2 years spending 5 years to become a full degree teacher. But the government says no, it will upgrade Colleges of Education to Universities Colleges of Education to ensure that all the Colleges are attached directly to the University as University Colleges. You’ll start and end with a degree within 4 years.”