A total of 16,432 newly recruited trained teachers are to begin teaching on October 3 without the proper licences which will qualify them to teach.

The National Inspectorate Board of the Ministry of Education announced on Monday that effective 2016/2017 academic year, all newly recruited teachers will have to be licenced before they will be allowed into the classrooms to teach.

It said teachers across the country would be required to renew their licences yearly, “just like how we renew other licences”, noting that will be after they have gone through professional development programmes and appraisals.

But speaking to 3FM Tuesday, the Public Relations officer of the Ministry, Francis Gbadago, justified the decision to post the recruited teachers to the classrooms when they have not secured the teaching licence as per the new directive.

He claimed, “the licensing issue has absolutely nothing to do with the newly recruited teachers,” adding it affects only the teachers “who are already in the field teaching”.

READ Newly trained teachers to be posted but won’t be allowed to teach

On September 19, the Ghana Education Service directed its regional directors to post all newly trained teachers to the various schools across the country, although the government had not given the financial clearance.

The teachers were not to be issued with appointment letters to that effect, and were also not be allowed entry to the classrooms of their respective schools to teach.

But the GES made a U-turn the next day by rescinding that decision after it received backlash from the public some of who claimed the move was politically motivated by the government.

It consequently directed that all the 16,432 report to work on October 3, 2016  and appointment letters issued to that effect.

By Shirley Ewurama Smith|3FM|3news.com|Ghana