The government must as a matter of urgency reconstitute all governing councils of Colleges of Education.

 

Mr Philip Ntaah, Acting Principal of Enchi College of Education, who made the call said the vaccum created by the absence of the governing councils, hampered critical decision making in the running of the institutions.

 

He was speaking at the 9th congregation ceremony for 2017 academic year.

 

In all, 311 regular and 506 untrained teachers graduated and were awarded diploma in Basic Education.

 

Six students obtained first class honours, 137 had second class upper, 288 had second class lover divisions, 270 obtained third class while 110 had pass.

 

He said statistics revealed that there had been remarkable improvement in students output as compared to the previous years.

 

Mr Ntaah stated that the teaching practice unit of the college had developed an instrument called the “teaching practice monitoring report form”.

 

He said this was a document that mandates the mentors to track and monitor the teaching performance of mentees in relation to the assessment procedure administered by the college supervisor.

 

The acting principal said T-TEL; an institution that supports public colleges of education to transform teaching and learning has adopted this unique instrument for national use.

 

On security, Mr Ntaah said management of the school in collaboration with the Students Representative Council, Member of Parliament for Aowin Constituency and the Municipal Assembly have embarked on a walling project that would cover a distance of 1.2 kilometres.

 

According to him, the college has established an electronic library to support teaching, learning and research work and its host communities.

 

He stated that they have embarked on a four-hectare plantain plantation with the objective of acquiring practical agricultural skills for students and also produce bunches of plantain to feed the entire school.

 

The Acting Principal said their French Programme, was at the third year since its inception in the 2016/2017 academic year.

 

He said with French classified as a programme in the new Bachelor of Basic Education Programme, the College would require adequate resources to meet the demand for the programme.

 

This he said was in line with the new government policy to make the teaching of French mandatory in all Basic Schools in Ghana.

 

He mentioned inadequate accommodation for staff, deplorable campus roads and pavements, lack of Internet connectivity and abandoned government projects as some of the challenges facing the school and appealed to the government to attend to their needs.

 

Professor Jonathan Fletcher, Acting Dean, School of Education and Leadership, University of Ghana, Legon, explained that over the years, they have as a country, reformed and restructured their teacher education system in response to demands of new vision and mission for education to meet the needs of a knowledge society.

 

He said currently they were in the process of transformation design to enable them change the way teachers work.

 

Prof. Fletcher noted that “What have been missing all along in the reformation and restructuring of our teacher education system was a set of national teacher professional standards to guide our teachers practice and their professional development.

 

In addition, he said the standards also described the training needs of teachers in order to raise their status to enhance learning in their community of practice.