By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Teachers' Union, Foday Kuyateh says their members are concerned over the new system of having to write a special examination before they can get given a license to practice.
Speaking to Politico, the Secretary General quoted his members as saying that they are not familiar with subjects like ICT.
"Some teachers have had over twenty years of experience. They are saying that being asked to take an examination is like telling them their certificates are worthless," he said, adding that the vast majority of their members say there is no need for them to take exams before licenses can be granted to them after they have gone through at least three years of rigorous training.
However, he said as a union, their role is to explain to their members the importance of them having teachers' licenses."The exam is not as difficult as they think. They will be tested in five basic areas like Maths, English, ICTs, Education and Professional Standards," Kuyateh said.
He noted that teachers not registered after the three-year period that TSC has set for all teachers to secure their licences will have their pin codes taken from them, as stated by the TSC.
He added that they are working with the TSC in ensuring that their members go through the process without "any disadvantage" to them.
Kuyateh said
That notwithstanding, the Public Relations Manager for the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), Jamie Victory Sankoh, told Politico that over a thousand teachers across all sixteen districts of Sierra Leone have registered with the TSC for licences, though she couldn’t confirm the exact number of registered teachers thus so far.
She noted that teachers in the Western Area make their way to the TSC office on a daily basis as the closing date for registration nears.
The Public Relations Manager said the teachers who have registered are those who agreed to take what she called basic exams on Mathematics, English Language, Information Communication Technology among others.
Various offices across the country can be accessed by those teachers who are unable to do the registration on their own, she noted.
She added that they are working in partnership with other teacher organisations to help them reach their membership to register in the various communities that they operate.
After registration is closed, she said they would have to schedule a date for the exams targeting the registered teachers. ‘’We need time to put things in place for the exams. So, we need time to do all of those. That is why the cut offline for registration is on Monday 18th of January this year, and between 18th to the 30th of this month, we will have finished everything,’’ she added, saying that exams for the said registered teachers will commence starting 30th of January to 4th February 2024.
‘’ There is a provision in the Teaching Service Commission Act that says every teacher in the country should have a licence. Any teacher who does not register will not have a place in the classroom, including private teaches’’ she said.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (14/01/24)
