Empower teachers to produce creative thinkers – Dr Adutwum urges colleges of education boards

Dr Yaw Osei Adu-Twum (middle), Minister of Education, administering the oath of office to the Board of the Akrokerri College of Education. Pictures: ERNEST KODZI

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has admonished the governing boards of colleges of education to empower teacher trainees to go out and create an enabling teaching environment for students to be creative thinkers for national development.

He explained that the contemporary industry relied more heavily on creative and innovative thinking than memorisation, hence the need for the colleges to produce teachers who would promote teaching and learning for development.

“We need you to create an empowered learning environment for trainees to also go out there to produce critical thinkers for our national development,” Dr Adutwum said at the inauguration of the governing boards of 16 colleges of education in Accra yesterday[September 13, 2022].

The colleges included the Abetifi College of Education, Ada College of Education, Agogo Presbyterian Women’s College of Education, Akatsi College of Education, Akrokerri College of Education, Atebubu College of Education, Bagabaga College of Education and Berekum College of Education.

The rest are Dambai College of Education, Komenda College of Education, Nusrat Japan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Presbyterian College of Education, Seventh-Day Adventist colleges of Education in Agona-Ashanti and Asokore, St Francis College of Education and Wiawso College of Education.

The minister led the boards to take their oath of office and secrecy.

Unique advantage

Dr Adutwum said it was time for the colleges to look out for unique selling advantages to position them to be more competitive in producing graduates for the country’s pre-tertiary schools.

He added that though the members of the boards represented different interest groups, the interest of the colleges must remain paramount in their daily engagements.

“Be interested in initiatives that will make the school stand out and may it be said that it was during your term that the college became the best or exceeded the youth’s own expectation

“Support the school and management and it will be to your credit,” he added.

The minister said the education sector was undergoing massive transformation, saying the colleges must prepare to embrace the changes.

Upgrade

The minister further announced that stakeholder engagements were underway to upgrade some of the colleges to help increase the enrolment base of the schools and offer other programmes, aside from education.

The move, he said, was also to wean the schools from affiliation to be independent.

He, therefore, urged the colleges to prepare to meet the requirements needed to make them independent.

Response

The Chairman of the Berekum College of Education Board, Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, pledged the support of his governing board to ensure that there was a conducive environment for teacher trainees.