FACILITIES TO BE AVAILABLE FOR TEACHER TRAINING ...Prez Mills assures (PAGE 11)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills has hinted that the government is making the necessary facilities available for the training of teachers to keep them abreast of current technological advancements.
President Atta Mills made these remarks in an address read on his behalf by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mrs Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh, at the first congregation of the Kyebi Presbyterian College of Education at Kyebi in the Eastern Region last Saturday.
In all 334 students passed out and were presented with Diploma in Basic Education at the colourful ceremony on the theme “Training Efficient and Devoted Teachers for the Service of Ghana”. It was witnessed by dignitaries such as the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Baba Jamal, top clergymen of the Presbyterian Church and parents.
President Atta Mills said teacher education needed to be accorded utmost attention in national development, since “it constitutes the basic in-built mechanism which services all components of development.
He further stated that since the quality of human resource in any nation depended on the quality of education offered and the quality of education given was also determined by the quality of teachers, it was important that at all times, the standard of teachers must be in tandem with the current expansion in knowledge due to rapid technological advancements.
President Atta Mills therefore said it was in that respect that the government was making every effort to improve the image and condition of service for teachers for their retention in the classroom to help produce good pupils.
The President, who praised the Presbyterian Church for its tremendous contributions to teacher education and education in general, congratulated the principal, staff and the Board of Governors of the college on guiding the graduates through the course and expressed the hope that the newly qualified teachers would impact the knowledge acquired on their pupils.
Professor James Adu Opare, Director of the Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast, who was the guest speaker, told the graduates that as professional teachers, they must be dedicated, efficient and proficient in their subject areas, keeping in mind the needs of pupils they guide.
He advised the graduates to make good use of courses offered by the Centre for Continuing Education, University of Cape Coast, to upgrade their knowledge.
The Principal of the college, Rev E.Y. Omenako, told the gathering that over the past three years, the college offered two major academic programmes, made up of the regular three-year Diploma in Basic Education and the Untrained Teachers’ Diploma in Basic Education, with the latter combining distance and face-to-face modes of instruction.
He said under the regular programme, a special Mathematics, Science and a general programme was offered, which does not attract adequate number of students, especially females, to the two perceived difficult subjects and suggested that utmost attention should be given to the two subjects at the senior high school level.
With regard to the infrastructural development of the college, Rev Omenako said it needed a modern and spacious library,the re-surfacing of its 2.4 km stretch of access and internal roads as well as staff accommodation and suggested that the building used by the erstwhile Kyebi Men’s Training College should be handed over to the college to be used for that purpose.