Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, has revealed that the National Teaching Council has asked for GHC7 million to organise entrance exams for applicants who apply to our teacher training colleges.
The Deputy Ranking on the Education Committee says the quality of applicants who apply to our teacher training colleges has dropped.
The lawmaker stated that several of the applicants who have applied to the colleges of education do not have the basic skills to be trained as teachers.
According to him, this came up before the committee when the head of the Council appeared before them to seek parliamentary approval for the money.
While speaking in an interview, he said that when proved further on why the request for that amount was made, Christian Addai Poku, who heads the Council, told the Committee that the extrance exams were to serve as a means to ensure that students who are admitted into our teaching colleges meet the minimum competencies to be trained as teachers.
According to him, this proposal was known to the cabinet, and so the president cannot come out and make claims that the quality of education has improved under his watch.
He explained that because the cabinet had not approved this amount, parliament was not in the place to approve it.
He was reacting to the claim made by the President that the quality of education under his watch had improved with stellar grades from students under his free SHS policy.
He noted that several tertiary institutions in Ghana are currently planning to introduce entrance exams for SHS graduates.
He added that several of the students who recorded good grades in senior high school are not able to cope with tertiary education.
He said several of them are unable to construct basic sentences, yet they form part of those the president referred to as recording good grades.
He stated that since the first batch of free SHS, the levels of exam malpractice are astonishing, adding that the government has compromised the system to help students cheat in their exams; hence, when they apply to the universities, they underperform.
He noted that they can be no quality when that quality is not demonstrated by the competence and capacity of the students.
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal/Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
