Unemployed teachers petition Mahama, call for return of batch recruitment system

The Coalition of Unemployed Trained Teachers appealed to President John Dramani Mahama and education authorities to reinstate the traditional batch-by-batch teacher recruitment system. The coalition stated that the current recruitment approach has left thousands of trained teachers unemployed, with graduates from different years competing for limited opportunities. The 2022 batch of College of Education graduates remains a backlog awaiting recruitment and posting, while graduates from the 2023 and 2024 batches are also yet to secure employment.

The coalition urged the government to prioritize the recruitment of the 2022 backlog and the 2023 graduates in the upcoming teacher recruitment exercise before considering subsequent batches. They argued that the batch recruitment system is a fairer and more orderly approach to employing newly trained teachers. The coalition also stated that prolonged unemployment has become a major burden on graduates, many of whom are struggling with the rising cost of living and are in urgent need of stable income.