The National Democratic Congress (NDC), if retained in office in the 2016 elections, will establish Colleges of Education to train teachers in early childhood care to teach children in the kindergartens, President John Dramani Mahama has said.

Presenting highlights of the NDC’s manifesto for the 2016 elections in Accra on Tuesday September 13, Mr Mahama said giving a child quality education at the early stages will help them to become better students as they grow.

He noted that as part of efforts to promote quality education, the NDC will also eliminate schools under trees by 2021.

“In basic education, our commitment will be to establish colleges of education for the sole purpose of training teachers in early childhood care and development. What we have done is we have added the two years of kindergarten to our school system. Unfortunately, while we are training teachers for primary, junior high schools and senior high school, we are not training teachers for early childhood learning and so normally it is done by daycare attendants and normally if you give the child a good start at the kindergarten, they are able to maintain it throughout their education. So we’re going to set up colleges of education that will train teachers who are specialised in training children at the early level from four years and upwards,” he stated.

Mr Mahama added that: “In the primary and junior levels, we will complete the process to eliminate the remaining schools under trees. By 2021, we will eliminate all schools under trees”.