The project is aimed at serving the growing interest of the increased number of students within the college going age range of 18 to 25 in teacher training education.

It is in fulfilment of the campaign promise the National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Techiman North, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, made to the people during the 2020 parliamentary election.

The project is being executed on a portion of land donated by the Tuobodom-based St Francis Parish of Roman Catholic Church Diocese of Techiman.

Rationale for project

In an address at a sod-cutting ceremony last Saturday, Mrs Ofosu-Adjare recalled that during the 2020 electioneering campaign, she set out to collate ideas and views from all the stakeholders in the constituency. 

The process led to the development of a document dubbed “Adjare Manifesto”, which she presented to the voters in the run-up to the elections.  

Prominent among the programmes in the document was the vision of the establishment of a college of education in Techiman North.  

She explained that per the 2020 Population and Housing Census, the total population of the Bono East Region was projected to be 1,133,768.

Out of that population, she said 209,821 were within the college-going age range of 18 to 25 years.

She stated that currently, there existed only one college of education in the region, located in the Atebubu-Amantin Constituency and that college alone was incapable of serving the recent growing interest of the populace in teacher training education due to capacity challenges.

“Available data from the office of the College’s Registrar shows that between the 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 academic years, the college could admit a paltry 1,955, representing 19 per cent of its cumulative applicants of 10,200, and this leaves much to be desired,” she said.

Geographically, the MP said the Bono East Region had two different clusters of districts.

The eastern cluster is made up of five districts, with a total population of 361,731 and the western cluster is made up of six districts with a total population of 607,418.

The eastern cluster, she explained, had the benefit of the Atebubu-Amantin College of Education.

“Therefore, the decision to have one established in Tuobodom in the western part of the region, which has the greater population, is justified.

“Given the above statistical evidence and the growing demand for the services of colleges of education, it is even reasonable to have more than one college within the western corridor to meet the demand,” she said.

Mrs Ofosu-Adjare expressed appreciation to the Catholic Bishop of the Techiman Diocese, Most Rev. Dominic Yeboah Nyarko, for donating a portion of the church’s land for the project.

She announced that with the support of the Bishop and his team of reverend fathers, she had been successful in completing three major accreditation processes--the name of the college, site accreditation and institutional accreditation.

The architectural designs and layout of the proposed college, as per the requirement and standard of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), are in full completion, she added.

“My next requirement and expectations as Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare is to mobilise the necessary financial and material resources to build the infrastructure such as administration block, lecture rooms, dining and assembly halls and others needed for academic work, and handover the management and the ownership to the Techiman Diocese of the church for the benefit of the people of Techiman North and beyond.

Prioritise wards’ education

Most Rev. Nyarko commended the MP for the bold initiative to give hope to students from the Techiman North Constituency and Bono East in general via education.

He, therefore, urged parents and guardians to embrace the gesture and prioritise the education of their children to help them grow to become future assets for themselves and the nation.