NTC Workshops: A Cash Cow for some industry players?

Do you agree that NTC Workshops have become a Cash Cow for some industry players?

As part of the reforms of pre-tertiary education in Ghana, the National Teaching Council (NTC) has been mandated to issue and renew license for teachers in pre-tertiary schools. A teacher without a license will not be permitted to teach in any public or private school in Ghana when the law is fully in operation as it has granted a period of amnesty.

As a result of this, teachers are required to accumulate a certain number of points by the expiration of their licenses to be able to renew it, hence the introduction of compulsory Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs for teachers. For example, a professional teacher on the rank of Assistant Director II (AD II) requires 85 credit points to be able to get their license renewed. This would definitely require went to undergo a series of credit point training and workshops

The government, led by the president His Excellency Nana Addo decided to pay professional development allowance to both professional and non-professional teachers in the pre-tertiary education sector to help them upgrade themselves to become dynamic in meeting the changing educational needs of the global community. The allowance has helped pre-tertiary teachers to acquire their initial licenses, to purchase the controversial teachers’ laptops and cover setting training and workshop costs.

However, some persons within this sector see the continuous professional development program as a cash cow and will “make hay while there is abundant sunshine”. Workshops are being organized by fraudsters who do not have any accreditation from NTC, asking participants to pay money. Recently, the management of NTC issued a statement, warning teachers to stay away from fraudsters as it had come across a social media circulation on teachers of Offinso municipality to a mandatory workshop scheduled for Monday 9th August 2022 and Tuesday 10th August 2022 demanding participants to pay an amount of GH40.

There are other workshops that are NTC approved but the charge is exorbitant according to some teachers. For example, some NTC approved online workshops organized for free, one can gain three credit points or more, but some service providers charge between GH50  and GH80 then for the same or similar content for the same credit point or less which some teachers say it’s very much unfair.

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Teachers in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district in the central region did not hide their anger and disappointment towards the directorate when it sanctioned at 3-credit point workshop for GH75 when an adjoining district, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) had organized the same workshop with the same content and same credit points some three weeks earlier charging GH50 per participant. By this, teachers in the district were reluctant to attend the workshop which was organized on the 26th of July 2022 for teachers in KG and primary schools as well as heardteachers and on 27th of July 2022 for teachers in the JHS and SHS. Some teachers cited the timing of the workshop and the fees being charged as the reasons for boycotting the workshop. A mop-up workshop was later organized on the 5th of August 2022 but that one was also highly not patronized. Some of the attendees of the that workshop did not receive the four credit points advertised as others are yet to receive any points several days upon completion of the workshop.

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The workshops and trainings are good as they equip to meet the 21st century needs of the teacher to be able to impact meaningful content to positively impact society. The entity together with stakeholders and other industry players must come together to streamline things so that some unscrupulous individuals and groups do not take advantage and milk the ordinary teacher.

Do you agree that NTC Workshops have become a Cash Cow for some industry players?