Saturday 14 March 2015



Examinations Questions Bank
Colleges of Educations to Increase enrollment

Colleges Of Education To Increase Admission Quotas (UER)

The Upper East Regional Minister, Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru has stated that government would continue to expand facilities in all the 38 Colleges of Education to befit their new status as tertiary institutions. He further stated that, the colleges would be assisted to increase their admission quotas of teacher trainees by over 30 per cent, a rise from 9,000 to 12,000.
Alhaji Mohammed –Muniru made the statement in an address he delivered at Navrongo at the third congregation of the St. John Bosco’s College of Education. He said the manifesto promise of 10 additional colleges by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration would be delivered in the short term in areas that are underserved in anticipation of increased student numbers.

According to him, government and its donor partners would also support 57 deprived districts and basic schools in the areas of planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education services. In addition, the Ghana Partnership for Education Grant will be used to train at least 5,000 teachers in the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education programme aimed at attaining 95 per cent of trained teachers at all levels by 2015.

The Regional Minister commended the academic and administrative staff of the college for remaining committed to training professional teachers over the years in the face of great difficulties. He asked the staff to use the ceremony as a self –assessment and renewal tool and reflect on the vision and mission the college set for itself to find out whether or not they achieved the set goals. He said government was committed to providing the needed infrastructure and enhanced conditions of service for tutors of colleges as a way of motivating and retaining them.

The Principal of St. John Bosco’s College of Education, Mr Alfred Abugre Ndago in his address disclosed that 278 graduates comprising students from the 2011/2012 academic year had successfully passed the Diploma in Basic Education examination. He said of the number, 14 candidates obtained 2nd Class Honours – Upper Division, 105 had 2nd Class Honours – Lower Division and 132 received 3rd Class Honours while 27 had passes.

Touching on the theme for the congregation “the state of colleges of education in the tertiary dispensation, challenges, and the way forward”, Mr Ndago observed that since the colleges were given provisional approval to run the diploma programme from 2007, the colleges of education had faced difficulties including the non-implementation of the college statutes, the conditions of service and scheme of service. He also observed that, staff of the colleges still drew non-tertiary salaries which is a disincentive for them especially the teachers. He said for instance within the past three years, the Bosco College lost more than five staff members to Universities and Polytechnics.

According to the Principal, the admission quotas for Colleges of Education remained the same for the past decade whereas the number of applicants kept soaring from 20,000 in 2003 to 54,000 in 2013. He revealed that the only two colleges in the Upper East region – Boscos and Gbewaa have a total admission quota of 500 students as against 3,000 qualified applicants and appealed to government to help in expanding the intake of applicants.

Mr Ndago commended government for the existing infrastructure at the college including a Nine-unit staff flats, Two-storey Eight-unit lecture theatre and the annual GETFund grant for infrastructure, staff development and research.

A representative of rlG Communications, Mr Erick Hovadjeto who spoke on behalf of the company’s CEO, Mr Roland Agambire, promised to present the rlG Uhuru hybrid of tablet/laptop to all graduating students who earn First Class Honours from the next congregation onwards.

Source: ISD (Peter Atogewe Wedam)

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