Featured Articles – Wednesday 5th February, 2020
There’s uproar within the teacher training fraternity due to a comment reportedly made by the Hon. Minister of Education. In an interview, the minister is reported to have said that, teacher trainees have worst results and not qualified hence he prefer university graduates to teacher trainees.
Teacher trainees across the nation have taken to social media to register their displeasure to what the minister said in a live television interview. Whilst others are calling for his immediate resignation for demeaning teachers in general, others are just asking for an apology and retraction.
Read a post we chanced on social media written by Don Francis Hanoman Sr. a level 300 student of Atebubu College of Education.
The last week before universities went on holidays I met few of my friends from KNUST at CCC, Ayigya. We were having a good time until issues of education came in and Adelaide asked where I was currently. I told her Atebubu College of Education. She paused and asked “you paa? Training College? Wasn’t the results good?”
That wasn’t the first time hearing someone make that statement. Personally, the education minister isn’t the first person to think students at the colleges of education have bad results but my problem is the fact that being an overlord of such a great fraternity he should have had a better way of disavowing that notion. Sadly, he spearheaded it.
First of all, there is a few truth in his assertion because even as at 2016 CoE’s picked students with D7 whiles universities peaked at C6. So in a way, one could use that to accuse us of having a “worst results”. His “truth hurts”, maybe.
However, from 2017 downwards, nobody went to college with D7. Moreover, even if it happened that people went with it, who overlorded that initiative? Some days ago, a minister of state said very soon students would go to school (both uni, CoE and NCE) with D7 in Mathematics. Where was he Napo?
As much as we’re angry let us ask ourselves if personally each of us has a good grade to go to university. We’re not calling on a duel to display results but I tell you that if allowed, probably most of the collegeans have better results at SHS than when he was in school. I know most of my colleagues at college who came with single grades from SHS.
The initiative to have a better education system is a collective effort. So whiles our hands are on the job to transform education in Ghana, we shouldn’t be backstabbed. The best way to tell the public is that we’re transitioning from the old education system to a far better one and hence an upgrade of teachers’ professionalism.
From onset of education in Ghana, were teachers degree holders? I remember as a kid how people were so happy to grabbed an O’level for teaching but today, it’s no more a pride so will the degree be too.
Most of us came to college for job security first and secondly, passion. I had admission to Legon to do my favorite course, KNUST and Jirapa nursing college but my dad and I resolved on CoE due to job security. So it is very erroneous to think we have the worse results as collegeans. Very erroneous.
So Mr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, come again!
© sirdonfrancis, February 5th, 2020.
P. S:. Send your articles through issahtohashamsoo@gmail.com for publication.
Teacher Trainees Daily Info 
Teaching in the classroom goes beyound obtaining good certificate and good grades.
There are some people with good
grades but cannot deliver .
Our educational infrastructure
must be resourced.
May be the Minister has not taught at the basic level before that is why he unabatedly speaks like that.
The challenges confronting the basic level are the following;
1.inadequate teaching tlms
2.Poor infrastrature
3.inadequate textbooks
4.unavailability of electricity
5.lack of discipline
6.Lackadaisical students
7.lack of parental control
8.Poor supervision
9.Poor Sanitation
I have alot to say but ….
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