The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has said it will not be drawn into the political football being played with the teacher licensure exams.

Following former President John Mahama’s recent Facebook Live transmission in which he promised to cancel the exam if he is elected into office in 2020, a Deputy General Secretary of the GNAT, Mr Awotwe Nkansah told Accra-based Joy FM’s Newsfile programme that the exam was a benchmark for drawing the line between fake and genuine teachers.

“We feel that in Ghana, we only hear of fake lawyers being arrested; have you ever heard of a fake teacher? No. But sometimes, these SHS graduates who go and teach people even in their homes, when they defile a student, people say: ‘Teacher has defiled the child’.

“So, we want these benchmarks to be dealt with, especially even in the private schools so that the teacher will have some importance”, he added.

In his view, rather than cancelling the exam, the fees for sitting should be scrapped.

“Already, there are discussions ongoing about the fees that have to be charged. If it becomes free that will be very fine,” he added.

In a subsequent statement on the same issue signed by GNAT General Secretary Thomas T. Musah, the group said the “licensure of teachers is a government policy and not the origination of GNAT” and, therefore, “any public or veiled or seeming attempt to link the association with its operationalisation by any government in power is not authorised.”

GNAT said “as an organisation, ours is to stand and defend what is good for teachers and the education enterprise in general”, adding: “We work with every government, so, we move with the policies of every government”.

“In the light of the above stand, we should not be drawn into any debate over the licensure policy”, GNAT noted.