The Institute of Education has organised a training workshop on the newly developed four-year Bachelor of Education programmes for supervisors in the various Colleges of Education in the country.
The workshop which was funded by the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) brought together Vice Principals, Assessment Officers and Dean of Academic Affairs from the colleges.
The workshop was in line with government’s policy to upgrade the Colleges to University Colleges of Education to run degree programmes. As part of the policy, the colleges would be shared among University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and the University for Development Studies (UDS). However, the Ministry of Education has agreed that UCC should start running the programme for the colleges in 2018 whiles the other universities also design their own curriculum.
Purpose of the Workshop
In his opening remark, the Director of the Institute of Education, Prof. Frederick Ocansey, said the workshop was to prepare the three key officers in the colleges to play their roles effectively to manage the new programmes. “This workshop is to prepare you psychologically, emotionally and cognitively to enable you to carry out the task ahead especially, when the colleges are now transiting from running Diploma to the Bachelor’s Degree in Education” he explained. He mentioned that the new programmes were Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood/Primary/Junior High School.
Prof. Ocansey announced that the Institute of Education has planned a number of workshops for qualified tutors who will be teaching on the programme. He said the workshop would run concurrently in six centres in Cape Coast, Sunyani, Kumasi, Ho, Koforidua and Tamale. Participants would be taken through the structure, content and time table arrangements for the programmes which according to him was quite different from the Diploma in Basic Education Curriculum the colleges were currently running”.
Colleges of Education as Centres of Excellence
The Chief Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Education on Teacher Education in Ghana, Mr. Akwasi Addae-Boahene, said there was the need to improve on the training of teachers for the classroom to meet international standards. He said government was keen on transforming the Colleges of Education into centres of excellence to train highly qualified teachers who will meet the requirements of a 21st Century classroom teacher.
Mr. Addae-Boahene said in order to achieve these goals, there was the need to start from the basis, stressing that “this requires that as a country, we agree on the broad definition of who a qualified teacher is. We can’t continue to call anyone who finds him/herself in the classroom holding chalk with children around as a teacher”. He said that was the reason why the National Teaching Council designed and approved national teaching standards-“a set of standards, competence and skills that we need to find in every single person who want to become a teacher”. He further explained that based on the standards, the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework was developed to guide institutions to design their own curriculum. “The National Council for Tertiary Education has also decided to come out with the National Curriculum Writing Guide for all tertiary institutions” he added.
Suppport from T-TEL
In order to realise the objectives of the policy, Mr. Addae-Boahene said T-TEL would support institutions that regulate teacher education including the National Accreditation Board, National Teaching Council, and the National Centre for Curriculum Assessment. He said the five universities and the colleges as well as District Assemblies would also receive some funding to ensure proper implementation of the policy.
The Dean of the School of Educational Development and Outreach, Prof. Kofi Davis made a presentation on the overview of the B.Ed programmes.
The Director of Academic Affairs of UCC, Mr. Onyame and some staff of the Students’ Record Section took participants through registration of courses, entry of marks and features of the students’ portal. Ms. Milan Ahema Tawiah of the Institute of Education also engaged the participants on time table preparation.
Present at the workshop were Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Key Adviser, Curriculum Reform, T-TEL and Dr. Eric Ananga, Support-Curriculum Reform.