New board for National Teaching Council
The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, yesterday swore in a 14-member Board of Governors of the National Teaching Council with a call on the members to develop and regulate standards for the preparation of professional development for teachers in the country.
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Membership
The council has an Education and Development Consultant, Mr Akwasi Addae-Boahene, a government nominee on the board, as its chairman.
The other government nominees are Professor Godwin Awabil, Mr Reuben A. Glover and Shirley Habiba Seidu. The other members are a representative each from the Ministry of Education, National Council for Tertiary Education, Council for
Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET), Conference of District Directors of Education and the Conference of Managers of Educational Units.
The rest are from industry and commerce, universities involved in teacher education, Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education, the National Teaching Council and the teacher associations.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang recalled that recently, the council organised a consultative workshop on a draft pre-service teacher standards for the colleges and universities of education.
The standards, she said, were developed with support from Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T’TEL) project supported by the UKAid, which was aimed at impacting 35,000 teachers over a period of four years.
Swearing them in, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang explained that the development of the standards arose from the need to consolidate the different standards being used in institutions offering initial teacher training and those who provided continuing professional development into a national standards framework to ensure that teacher development was guided by the same set of standards.
She said all institutions involved in the training of teachers including universities and colleges, public and private, vocational or technical, would be expected to adhere to the prescribed standards.
“Teacher educators, district education directors, circuit supervisors, teacher unions, head teachers, mentors and, of course, individual teachers will as well be guided by the established standards,” she said.
Constitutional mandate
Outlining an eight-point constitutional mandate of the board, she said it was enjoined to, among other powers, advise the minister responsible for education on matters relating to the professional standing and status of teachers and teacher education.
In addition, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the board, under the Education Act 2008, Act 778, was to recommend to the minister, professional standards required for the registration of teachers and that the board was also to periodically review professional practice and ethical standards for teachers and teaching.
“The Education Act, Act 778 enjoins you to, among other issues, review, through its disciplinary committees, appeal cases of professional misconduct and confirm, vary or rescind the decision of the district disciplinary committee.
“The board is enjoined to revoke a teacher’s licence to teach after establishing a case of grave professional misconduct as well as give approval for the suspension of a teacher after satisfying itself that the teacher has contravened laid down regulations governing the professional conduct of teachers,” the minister told members of the board.
Gratitude
Responding, the Chairman of the board, Mr Akwasi Addae-Boahene, extended the board’s appreciation to the President, through the Minister of Education, for the trust reposed in them and gave an assurance that they would work hard to justify their appointment.