TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES TO GET ICT FACILITIES (PAGE 11)

THE government will soon equip all the 38 Teacher Training Colleges in the country with Information Communications Technology (ICT) facilities to enhance teaching and learning, the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has announced.
He said this would enable teacher trainees to improve on their abilities and prepare them to effectively handle ICT programmes, which is now on the basic school curriculum.
Alhaji Mahama said the government was also constructing the necessary infrastructure such as classrooms, libraries and science laboratories, and administration blocks in all the 38 teacher training colleges to raise their status.
It had already provided them with Tata buses while their principals had been given brand new four-wheel Nissan Patrol vehicles to facilitate their work and raise their status, adding that a scheme was being worked out to provide interested staff members with cars and motorbikes on hire purchase basis.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, the Vice-President said “teachers are no longer the only source of knowledge and information in this age of globalisation”.
He said this at the opening of the 50th conference and workshop of the National Conference of Principals of Teacher Training Colleges (PRINCOF) at Aburi.
The event was on the theme: “PRINCOF at 50: Achievements, Prospects and Challenges”.
The Vice-President said the government had recognised ICT as one of the most effective ways to a learner-centred approach of instruction.
“Emphasis on ICT in the colleges will to a larger extent support critical thinking, problem-solving, as well as the creative and innovative abilities of trainees, which would prepare them to effectively handle ICT programmes in schools,” he noted.
The President of PRINCOF, Mr Emmanuel K. Osei, called on the government to implement policies that would improve the conditions of service for teachers in the country.
He said this would not only motivate teachers to give their best and retain them in the profession, but would also make the profession more attractive to others.
On the average, he said they produced 9,000 teachers each year for basic schools, while in the last 10 years they had produced 90,000 teachers, and asked - “but where are they? Where do all other teachers we train go to?” the president asked.
Another disturbing phenomena arising from the low teacher motivation, Mr Osei noted, was that the teacher training institutions had become the last choice for students as the colleges did not attract the best cream of students who could impact positively on their chosen career.
For his part, the Rt Rev Dr Frimpong-Manso expressed worry over the increasing spate of anti-social behaviours in second-cycle institutions such as occultism, immorality, and smoking and therefore called on the Ghana Education Service to involve religious bodies in the management of educational institutions to curb such practices.
The function was attended by the principals of the various teacher training colleges across the country, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, the Rt Rev. Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, the Chairman of the Akuapem Presbytery, Dr J.O.Y Mante, and the Aburihene, Oto Buor Djan Kwesi II.