This examination is to be established in Teacher Training Colleges for students who want to join the teaching profession.

Speaking with the Country Director Peter Partey-Anti, he revealed that the entrance exam will help ensure appropriate recruitment of quality teachers.

He said teachers are not treated fairly and respected yet the profession requires brilliant people.

Mr Partey-Anti believes if the entrance exam is introduced, people would suffer before being able to join, hence teachers will regain their integrity. He said it has to get to the point that teachers become very scarce for their importance to be noticed.

“Anyone who is in the profession knows how teachers are being treated. It is not the kind of job which is a stepping stone, teachers play a critical role in the lives of children. The profession requires brilliant people to teach and that is why all these measures are being put in place to ensure proper recruitment into the profession.

“We have to get to that stage where there will be demand for teachers that is how

that is how I feel that is the only way to be able to value the teaching profession,” he said.

Introducing these exams will cause students to suffer before they are able to enter the profession so that teachers will regain their integrity.

Also, Lawrence Sarpong, who is the Deputy Acting Registrar for NTC, revealed their meeting with stakeholders on the same subject is yielding positive results.

“Printing of papers and other activities will happen as far as examination is concerned so it requires payment of money. We have had meetings and discussions with stakeholders about the exams but for now, the amount hasn’t been concluded,” he added.

Speaking with the Country Director for IFES, Peter Partey-Anti on Burning Issues, he said although students are stranded, lecturers feel they are being disrespected.

He said lecturers will be the losers if the strike is called off without getting what they are demanding.

“I think for me and for us we support the strike of UTAG, we think that they should push on until their needs are met because if they call off the strike, it means they have lost their sight and the government will not take them serious.”

He added that the Minister of Education is ‘incompetent’ and has failed to execute his responsibility, but waited for the issue to escalate before intervening.

“I was shocked yesterday to hear the Minister of Education talk about something else in the education update. He was asked about this issue and he failed to answer this question until he was prompted again. I mean it clearly shows lack of seriousness,” he said.

However, the President of the University Students Association of Ghana, Philip Christian Armah, has disclosed his opinion on the government’s inability to meet the needs of UTAG.

He believes the government is scared to take their issue into consideration as it may trigger other workers from other institutions to come up with their problems.

“The truth is I feel the government is scared to take the terms of UTAG’s conditions into consideration; it may trigger other institutions to call for better conditions of service. And if the government is afraid to commit itself by accepting these needs, then there is a lack of fairness in the system,” he added.

He further added that the works of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission should be improved.

The Commission was created to control these issues and if the government is still facing such complications, then, he thinks they should beef up their responsibility.

“To ensure calmness, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission should sit up because the Commission was created to control consistent strikes and other issues. Now that these issues are still popping up I think the fair wages should be blamed for all these disparities,” he said.