Proposed model for an ideal teacher training and recruitment system

By Peter Anti PARTEY, PhD (IFEST Ghana)

Let me start by indicating that most of us in the advocacy and policy analysis space do our work with the default assumption that our leaders have the country at heart and would want to genuinely solve our problems.

1. Prospective teachers are admitted into accredited Colleges of Education, including those affiliated with or embedded within universities.
2. By law and policy, all teacher trainees graduate with a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree. Consequently, they are recognised as tertiary students, and their instructors are designated as lecturers rather than “tutors”; and hence, should be treated just like their colleagues in the universities.
3. Teacher trainees should access financial support through the national student loan scheme.
4. The current system of allowances and feeding should be discontinued, as it is fiscally unsustainable and misaligned with broader higher education financing policies.
5. This reform has been widely advocated and remains a necessary step toward equity and efficiency.
6. Upon completion of the four-year B.Ed. programme, all graduates – whether from universities or Colleges of Education, must sit for a professional licensure examination administered by the National Teaching Council (NTC).
7. Candidates who pass the licensure examination are issued a provisional teaching licence and enter a mandatory one-year probationary period. (During this period, Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) undergo structured mentorship, supervision and classroom-based professional development.)
8. After completing the probationary period, teachers participate in a formal induction process, which transitions them into fully licensed professional educators.
9. Fully licensed teachers may then apply for teaching positions using their academic and professional credentials. (Recruitment should be merit-based, transparent and demand-driven)
10. The Ghana Education Service (GES), through a decentralised recruitment framework, should advertise vacancies two or three times annually based on staffing needs.
11. Automatic posting or mandatory recruitment should be eliminated to enhance efficiency and accountability.
12. Recruitment should be guided by robust teacher demand forecasting models, incorporating enrolment trends, subject specialisation gaps and regional disparities. This ensures alignment between teacher supply and system needs.
13. Advancement within the teaching profession should continuously be linked to continuous professional development (CPD), classroom effectiveness and periodic re-licensing requirements through portfolio building, not tenure alone.
14. Targeted incentives (e.g., rural posting allowances, housing support or accelerated promotion pathways) should be introduced to attract and retain qualified teachers in underserved and deprived areas.

This model transitions teacher recruitment in Ghana from a supply-driven, entitlement-based system to a professionalised, demand-driven and performance-oriented system. It strengthens accountability, improves teacher quality and aligns teacher education with broader public sector reforms and labour market principles.

NB: I know this will not win the votes from the Teacher trainees’ constituency, but it will surely put the education system on a path of efficiency and effectiveness.

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