Mr Emmanuel Kingsley Osei, Principal of the
Presbyterian College of Education (PCE) has appealed to government to
increase the quota of students enrolled to the teacher training colleges in order
to "step up" the number of teachers produced.
"This low intake is affecting the smooth running of the colleges, we have
classrooms without teachers yet we are not training more teachers."
According to Mr Osei, the PCE, known as the "mother of schools," had
the capacity to enrol at least five hundred students yet because of the quota
system, only 321 students were allowed into the college last year.
He was speaking at the graduation ceremony for 365 graduands, who had
successfully gone through a three year diploma course in education programme
from the college at Akropong-Akuapem on Saturday.
Mr Osei noted for example that, the PCE had a whole classroom block, a
girl's dormitory and other facilities lying idle because the student population
was small and therefore appealed to government to have a second look at the
system to ensure that those facilities were not left to rot.
He said he was particularly worried with the girls dormitory that was lying
idle whiles many girls were looking for the opportunity to enter training colleges
adding that "female teachers serves as role models for the communities and so
its unfortunate that we have the capacity yet we cannot enrol them".
Mr Osei also called on government to fully equip all training colleges with
Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and internet services at the
laboratories to equip the teachers at the basic schools.
He reminded the graduands of the hard work and training they had gone
through and urged them to be ambassadors of the Presbyterian discipline
because the school "would not hesitate to call you back for training when you
perform below expectation".
Three students had second class upper, 45 had second class lower, 166
had third class, 99 had pass, whiles 52 of the graduands were awaiting results.
The college Permanent Senior of the School, Mr Newton Bordor on behalf
of the graduands said their three year stay in the school had been characterized
by the proverbial Presbyterian discipline, which is hard work and Godliness.
He thanked the Principal, who he described as not only the head of the
school but a father to all and assured him that they would make a difference in
the teaching field.