All Colleges of Education across the country are set to be upgraded to university status, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced.
The move, the President said is part of government’s plans to help boost the quality of education in the country to meet world standards.
“From the 2018/2019 academic year, all our colleges of education will be upgraded to University Colleges,” he said at the 170th-anniversary celebration of the Presbyterian College of Education, in Akropong in the Eastern Region.
“These reforms form part of government’s vision to transform the country’s educational system to meet the needs of the 21st-century economy and to produce a skilled and confident workforce to drive the nation’s agenda for industrialization and modernization,” he told the gathering.
The president in his speech said the new initiative will also reduce the extra cost teachers suffer to get degrees after completing their diploma courses.
“Currently…in addition to the extra amount of money spent on getting a degree, it will take you not less than five years to get one,” he noted.
He added that the upgrade will also ensure that a first degree becomes the minimum requirement to teach at any level in the country’s educational system.
“With the introduction of the four-year Bachelor of Education degree, you will now obtain your first degree at the end of your schooling. This ensures that you enter the teaching service…with an increase in your earning capacity,” he added.
Mr Akufo-Addo noted that the University Colleges will be initially affiliated to the University of Cape Coast and subsequently to other public universities.
Currently, many teachers who complete the three-year Diploma in Basic Education at the Colleges of Education go on later to do a two-year top-up first degree, by distance learning, at the University of Cape Coast.
Source – MyJoyOnline