Teachers Will Be Licensed to Teach Under Planned Commission, Minister Drammeh Says

By Seedy Jobe

The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education is preparing to establish a Teacher Service Commission that would require teachers to be licensed before they can work in classrooms, part of a broader effort to professionalize teaching and improve the quality of education in The Gambia.

Dr. Habibatou Drammeh, the minister of basic and secondary education, said the proposed system would bring teaching closer in line with regulated professions such as law, where practitioners must meet established standards before they are allowed to work.

“Our teachers will be like lawyers now,” Dr. Drammeh said in an interview Tuesday on QTV’s This Morning program. “They will be licensed to teach.”

Under the proposed system, teachers would be required to obtain professional certification, register with the appropriate body, and secure a license before being allowed to teach in basic and secondary schools.

Dr. Drammeh said the licensing process would help ensure that those entering the classroom meet the qualifications and professional standards expected of teachers.

“A teacher who wants to really be a teacher has to have a profession that will require certification, a license, and registration,” she said. “Before you are issued this, we must have seen you qualify enough to be called a teacher in basic and secondary education.”

The system would also give authorities the power to revoke the licenses of teachers who breach professional standards, effectively preventing them from teaching elsewhere in the country.

Dr. Drammeh described the proposed commission as a significant step toward addressing concerns about the quality of teaching while giving greater professional recognition to educators.

She said managing the education sector remained a considerable challenge. The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, she noted, oversees the country’s largest population of learners and employs more civil servants than any other government ministry.

While some of the ministry’s broader reforms could take years to produce their full effect, Dr. Drammeh said several measures already underway were beginning to show results.

The regulations needed to establish the Teacher Service Commission have been completed and are expected to be presented to the Cabinet this week, she said. If approved, the ministry would move ahead with the remaining steps required to establish the commission.

Dr. Drammeh said the goal was to make teaching a more clearly defined profession, strengthen accountability, and ensure that those who enter—and remain in—the classroom meet established professional standards.