Government urged to increase funding to Colleges of Education

The Principal of the Accra College of Education, Professor Samuel A. Atintono, has called on the government to increase funding for colleges of education to improve the quality of education provided to students. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the schools’s sixth matriculation ceremony, he explained that teachers who graduated from the colleges and were posted to the basic and junior high schools played critical roles in shaping the foundation of Ghanaian children hence their education must not be neglected.

“We must not be left behind because the teachers at the basic and junior high schools are those who produce the best students we see in senior high schools,” he said.

An affiliate of the University of Ghana, the Accra College of Education, runs four-year Bachelor of Education programmes in Early Childhood, Primary and Junior High School education.

Three hundred and fifty-one students were matriculated into the college community as junior members at the ceremony which took place at the school’s hall on February 23. 

Challenges

Prof. Atintono explained that infrastructure, ranging from limited classrooms and boarding facilities, laboratories among others still remained the school’s biggest challenge.

As a result, he said the school could only admit the 351 students out of the over 4,471 applications it received.

As an interim measure, the Principal said the 46 public colleges of education decided to operate a residential policy where only level 100 to 300 students were given accommodation on campus.

Internally, he said the school was constructing a 300-bed capacity hostel facility, which was 70 per cent complete, adding: “I am confident that it will be completed this year to ease our accommodation problem”.

As part of initiatives to train teachers to attain professional competence, the principal said the school partnered Sabre Education, a non-governmental organisation with vast experience in early grade education, to establish a centre on campus to enhance practical learning. 

Social media

The principal urged the newly admitted students to minimise spending excessive time on social media platforms.

He explained that such platforms offered little contributions to their academic endeavours.

Instead, he said the students must cultivate critical thinking abilities and analytical skills to become independent learners. .