The Mount Mary College of Education at Somanya in the Eastern Region has held the graduation for the 2013 year group, during which 297 students passed out with Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) after a three-year study in French and general courses.
Out of the number, 117, representing 39.4 per cent, qualified to teach French in the various junior high schools while 167, representing 56.2 per cent, studied the general programmes of the college.
According to the principal of the college, Mr Peter Attafuah, 27 students obtained second class honours (Upper Division), 127-second class (Lower Division) and 119 students had third class. Nine students, representing three per cent, obtained ordinary pass, while 13 students were referred in one paper, with one student having his result unconfirmed.
Challenges
Mr Attafuah expressed concern about what he described as challenges associated with the recruitment of teachers to the college.
He explained that teachers who wanted a transfer from the Ghana Education Service (GES) to the Colleges of Education were denied that request, with the reason that the Colleges of Education were no longer under the GES, “meanwhile the salaries of Colleges of Education were still on the GES payroll.”
The principal said the effect of that action was very serious, because a course like French had a limited number of teachers handling it and some senior and experienced tutors in the subject area would soon retire. He appealed to the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), Ministry of Education and the GES to streamline the process and address all challenges affecting the effective operation of the Colleges of Education as tertiary institutions.
Mr Attafuah said the curricular of the teacher training institutions must be examined critically and restructured to enable the Colleges of Education to produce very skilful, well-informed and well-educated teachers to make teaching and learning in the schools relevant to the needs of students and society in general.
Keynote address
In his keynote address, the Deputy Registrar, School of Graduate Studies and Research of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Joseph C. Sepenu, who spoke on “leadership,” entreated the graduands to be role models in their various communities and urged them to provide academic and moral leadership for their pupils.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua and Chairman of the Governing Council of the college, Most Rev. Dr Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, admonished the graduands to put God first in whatever they did as they stepped into the world of work.
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