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| Regional Minister, Mr Woyongo addressing the gathering |
The 11th session
of the Regional Best Teacher Award ceremony has ended at Bolgatanga with a call
on the government through the Education Ministry to as a matter of concern
consider increasing the intake quotas of the country’s Teacher Training
Colleges. This has become necessary due to the yawning disparity between pupil
teacher and pupil trained teacher ratio in our basic and junior high schools.
Adherence will improve the quality of education at the pre-tertiary educational
level as the desired quality cannot be achieved if we continue to have so many
pupil teachers in the school system.
The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Mr Paul Apanga who made
the call implored government to expedite action on the matter since most
teacher training colleges have enough vacuum to absorb more qualified
applicants, but they do not have the mandate to do so. He cited St John Bosco’s Training College as
an example, noting that though the school has the required facility and
capacity of recruiting about 1,700 students; it is compelled to absorb only 280
applicants, which according to him is unfortunate. According to him several
teacher training colleges across the country suffer the same fate but are
helpless due to the quota system instituted across board. Mr. Apanga in the
course of his request moreover charged the government to consider introducing
the development of fee paying system in the country’s teacher training colleges
of Education so that appreciable number of qualified SHS graduates that meet
the admission criteria of the colleges but are not catered for through the
government quota system be admitted by the colleges. To him, such individuals
are interested in the profession and have the ability of settling the payment
of their training, adding that after training they can be recruited by the GES
through quotas released each year and given licensed and registration numbers
to occupy the empty classrooms in our schools. In his later submission, Mr
Apanga congratulated the award winners for their exemplary qualities and
appealed to RCC and the Assemblies to help institute such award schemes in
their respective districts to motivate and inspire qualified teachers to their districts.
In reaction to the appeal made, the Upper East Regional minister, Mark Woyongo
who was the guest of honour pledged to forward some of the concerns to his
colleagues for redress in the next Regional Ministers Conference to be held in
Takoradi this year. He also underscored moves by the government to broaden the
scope of award to motivate teachers. Teaching and non-teaching staff that
distinguished themselves in various forms of disciplines were awarded for their
dedicated service. Prizes ranging from 20 inch television sets, double door
refrigerators and burner gas cooker were presenters to the awardees. The award
winners were also presented with certificate of honor to appreciate their
effort. Mr Augustine Atanga on behalf of the awardees implored teachers to put
up their best since the quality of human resource will determine the ability of
students in ensuring massive reduction in poverty.
GBC
END
IA/
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