New teachers in the country will be licensed before they are allowed to teach in public schools beginning from 2016/2017 academic year, the acting Chief Inspector of the National Inspectorate Board (NIB), Dr Augustine Tawiah has disclosed.

Professional teachers already in the system will also be streamlined while nonprofessional teachers will be given temporal license for three years during which they are expected to acquire the license.

In addition, the license will be renewed each year for the teachers after they have gone through professional development programmes and appraisals to get their licences renewed.

This was made known at a media interaction with journalists on teacher absenteeism and school inspection in Accra Tuesday.

Dr Tawiah explained that the license comes with a criterium teachers must meet before it is renewed.

“If you are always fighting and also if you have a criminal record and all such vices, you will lose your licence,” Dr Tawiah said.

Touching on teacher absenteeism, Dr Tawiah said the canker has reduced significantly from 27 percent to seven percent.

The findings on teacher absenteeism was based on a nationwide inspection of 1,789 public schools.