GNAT cautions teachers against exam malpractices

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is cautioning teachers engaging in examination malpractice to desist from such irresponsible acts.

This follows reports of malpractice during the just-ended 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which led to the arrest of some teachers.

The Association, while condemning the act, says it will not provide support to any member found guilty.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a week-long in-service training for teachers from the Volta and Eastern Regions, the Deputy General Secretary of GNAT, Amadu Moses Baman Snr., noted that the association is yet to get full details of the teachers involved in the act.

“Our children who were in Junior High School Three wrote the BECE exams, and I believe it was reported on the airwaves that some teachers were actually arrested. We are yet to find out who and whom. We don’t know the details of who was arrested or who was not arrested. But we think that it is important to tell our teachers that we should desist from malpractice. If we have prepared our children, let us allow them to go and write. It doesn’t help any of us.”

Baman revealed that GNAT aims to train 1,000 teachers this year from the Ashanti, Eastern, and Volta Regions and emphasized the need for continuous professional development to meet 21st-century global standards.

“I will tell you that the programme was very good. It was participatory. They actively participated in the programme. The facilitators did very well and they are calling for an expansion and extension of time. So based on this, we think that the Ghana Education Service, which has it as its core mandate to organise in-service training for teachers to build their capacity so that they can get back to classrooms and be able to perform effectively and efficiently.”

“They need to prioritise this because this year alone, GNAT is training about 1,200 GNAT members who are teachers at the pre-teaching level. They are drawn from our primary schools and our junior high schools. So if GNAT is doing this, we think that the Ghana Education Service should also look at it.”