Mr. Paul Effah, former Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, has urged managements of Colleges of Education to infuse indigenous knowledge into modern methods of training teachers, particularly for basic schools.
He stressed this would enable products of the colleges “to impact positively on local and catchment areas, meet national aspirations and seek to find space within the international academic community”.
Mr Effah made the call in a keynote address he delivered at the inauguration of St. Ambrose College of Education, established in 2009 by the Catholic Church at Dormaa-Akwamu in Dormaa-East District of Brong-Ahafo.
“Colleges of Education need to inform teaching with new knowledge in order to remain competitive and responsive to society’s growing demands”, he said.
The inauguration of the college was under the theme, “The improvement of the quality and standards of basic education in Ghana; The role of Colleges of Education”.
Mr Effah emphasized education required the synergy of the unique characteristics of all levels of education to ensure best capacities were maximized for the benefit of the nation.
He noted that “in spite of all the efforts made to increase the number of teachers and improve the pupil-teacher ratio of 52:1 at basic schools in 2008, there is significant shortage of trained teachers in our schools”.
The former executive secretary commended the Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, The Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi for initiating the college project, Dormaa Traditional Council for donating land for the project and Manos Unidas, a Spanish organisation, for its financial support.
He urged students of the College to involve themselves in every aspect of the school’s life in order to make better teachers and good citizens.