ADDIS ABABA – Licensing of teachers and school principals is underway in educational institutions across the country to attain notable achievement in quality education, the Ministry of Education said.
Kasanesh Alemu, Director of Teachers and School Principals Licensing and ReLicensing Directorate, told The Ethiopian Herald that the Ministry is striving to achieve quality education through cascading teachers’ continuous professional development programme at all levels. Framing other countries’ experience, the Ministry has been implementing the teachers’ professional licensing programme across the country to fetch tangible outcome in education quality, she said.
According to Kassanesh, over 333,341 teachers and school principals have taken the licensing exam since January 2013 to September 2018. Of these, 210,113 are male and the remaining 123,010 are female. Among the total examinees, only 76,837 teachers and school directors have attained the desired result to receive certificate for accomplishing teachers’ professional licensing process, Kasanesh disclosed.
Ascertaining teachers’ instruction capacity, whether they are on the average or below the standard, is the priority task of the Ministry to achieve teachers’ professional development programme, Kasanesh said. If they are on the standard or achieve the desired result, they will be awarded the teaching license certificate, which acclaims them for the respective teaching positions.
“Out of the total 76,837 teachers and school directors, 7,370 of them which constitute 9.6 per cent have received the Teaching License Certificate.” Nevertheless, different teachers’ competency improvement works will be applied for those under the standard, she added. In fact, the evaluation of teachers’ capacity aimed at not to say someone has passed or others has failed, rather it is to show the gap and improve the quality of education at every level, Kasanesh stressed.
Aster Debalke, Biology Teacher at Berhane Hilina Primary School in Addis Ababa, is one of the examinees who scored the anticipated result intended to support the acquisition of quality education. Aster believes that the licensing program has immense significance for the development of teachers’ profession, bring quality education and cultivate responsible citizen.
Accordingly, the government should prepare motivational and comprehensive trainings for teachers to let them go through the new educational dynamics, Aster suggested. Aster also pointed out that the teachers’ licensing program is crucial to identifying teachers’ professional gaps and promoting their skills provided via continuous trainings. There are nearly one million teachers in Ethiopia, The Ethiopian Herald learned.
The Ethiopian Herald, December 29/2018
BY HIZKEL HAILU
