Graduate teacher recruitment: Priority for special teachers, high demand subject areas

The Ghana Education Service (GES) says priority will be given to persons with disability (PWDs) graduates with the requisite qualifications and interested in teaching in the ongoing recruitment of graduate teachers.

It said priority would also be given to graduates with degree in high demand subject areas such as early childhood, French, science, special education and technical, vocational education and training (TVET).

Criteria

The Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, who announced this in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the general criteria were that all interested applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in education and should have completed the mandatory national service.

Additionally, he said another critical requirement was that the applicant should have passed the Teacher Licensure Examination and was willing to work wherever his or her service would be needed.

He advised persons who did not meet the criteria not to apply because they would not be shortlisted.

Qualification

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa urged qualified candidates to visit the GES official website: www.gespromotions.gov.gh, to complete an online application forms.

“Applicants should note that the GES reserves the right to post recruited teachers to where their services are needed,” he said. 

He stated that the recruitment exercise was not applicable to existing staff of the GES who wished to change their posting.

Special attention areas

Touching on specifics, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that the special attention to PWDs and special education was in compliance with the inclusivity as entrenched in the Education Act 2008 (Act 778).

He explained further that the Act focused on ensuring that education was made for all, regardless of one’s sex, physical disability, tribe, geographic location, economic status or political affiliation.

On early childhood education, the director-general explained that the emphasis was to ensure that children entering the basic school had a solid and good foundation.

He said a good early childhood foundation was critical to enable a smooth educational progression and that was what the government was aiming at.

French language

For the special attention on the French language, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that the current curriculum for both the primary and junior high school (JHS) put emphasis on the subject and hence the need for a lot more teachers in that area.

He said the reforms of school curricula to include the teaching and learning of French at the primary level from Basic Four (B4) to Basic Six (B6) through a standard-based curriculum pointed to emphasis on the subject.

TVET

For the emphasis on the sciences and TVET, he explained that the trend of the world was now on science and Ghana could not afford to be left behind.

Touching on the TVET, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that the GES had now made it mandatory in the selection of schools by the BECE candidates to select either a senior high/technical school (SHTS) or a purely technical or vocational school as one of their choices.

He explained that the industrialisation drive by the government had led to the springing up of factories and the growth of industries, for which reason “we need to develop the right skills to manage these factories and industries”.

Assurance

Last month, members of the unemployed graduate teachers from the various universities planned to picket and hold a peaceful demonstration at the ministry but they were given the assurance that they would be considered in the recruitment process before the end of the year.

Overall, the GES is expected to recruit about 93,724 teachers by the close of the year.