Credible and sustainable educational policy needed - Tetteh

Ada Foah, June 6, GNA - Mrs Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh, Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Pre-Tertiary Education, has observed that the challenges of the global world today could only be confronted with a credible, well-articulated and sustainable educational policy. This policy, she said, should respond to critical areas of human resource development and global challenges.

Mrs Tetteh made the observation at the third Congregation of the Ada College of Education (ADACOE) for 193 regular and 521 sandwich students at Ada Foah in the Dangme East District at the weekend. The theme for the occasion was: "Quality Teacher Education, The Bedrock For Human Development In The 21st Century."

"Our efforts as a nation to industrialise, modernize our agriculture, develop the service industry as an attractive jewel for investors, and aggressively expand ICT infrastructure and expertise, and become a middle income economy in the near future, will be a daunting task without quality education for which the teacher is the kin-pin," the Deputy Minister said. She said the upgrading of Teacher Training Colleges into Diploma Awarding institutions known as Colleges of Education, was a way of improving quality education in the country.

Mrs Tetteh said the rationale was to attract better qualified students and to ensure that the colleges trained highly competent teachers with requisite know-how.

She urged students in Colleges of Education to reciprocate government's investments in them by taking advantage of the opportunities provided for them to discipline themselves and make judicious use of instructional periods. Mrs Tetteh pointed out that the teaching profession derived its dignity from the exemplary lives the society expected from teachers, adding, "this is why one of the worst forms of individuals any society can have is an indiscipline teacher." "A single indiscipline teacher," Mrs Tetteh said, "diminishes and defeats our efforts to use education as a tool for social transformation."

The Deputy Minister urged teachers to uphold the ethics of their profession by refraining from drunkenness, sexual misconducts, child abuse and absenteeism, which she said was very disheartening. She noted that quality teacher education "goes beyond the acquisition of skills and knowledge, because the higher attributes of it is discipline, hard work, honesty, fairness, a critical mind and respect for authority. Mrs Tetteh charged teachers to avail themselves of the many opportunities that existed for them to continuously upgrade and update their knowledge and skills and to also continue to remain in the service. She expressed the hope that teachers would continue to support the efforts of government in its bid to build a knowledge-based and just society.

She congratulated the graduating student for the successful completion of their courses, and expressed the hope that they would live up to expectation in their chosen profession.

Mr Emmanuel Asare, Deputy Director of Teacher Education, said everything was being done to provide adequate infrastructure to help address some of the numerous challenges facing Teacher Education in the country. Mr Asare urged the graduands to achieve academic and professional excellence by giving of their best, in order to become role models to their pupils.

Mr David Sottie, Acting Principal of ADACOE, enumerated the challenges facing the college, and said the major one was inadequate accommodation for staff members, saying, over 90 per cent of the teachers live outside the school campus. Mr Sottie said, considering the fact that there were only two Colleges of Education in the Greater-Accra Region; the school was worried about its admission quota, which keeps decreasing. He said the school had available resources to support many students, and expressed the hope that ADACOE would be considered with a bigger quota more than the previous quota of 235 freshmen and women. Mr Nicholas Kutor, Examinations Co-ordinator for Training Colleges, conferred the Diplomas on the graduands, and urged them to become worthy ambassadors of their Alma Mater, through hard work. 6 June 10