Tumu College of Education in the Upper West Region of Ghana has held its 9th Matriculation admonishing central government to solve the major problem of infrastructure deficit there.

According to the Principal, Adams Kaleo Bertinus, the College is bedeviled with myriad challenges which required government's immediate response.

"Staff and student residential accommodation, academic facilities like lecture theatres, a modern ICT centre, a well-equipped library and a water system solely for the College are some of the teething challenges hampering the implementation of the B.Ed programme", he said.

He underscored the need for government to lift the ban on recruitment for Colleges of Education to recruit academic and administrative staff.

Mr. Adams Kaleo also bemoaned government's failure to reconstitute the Governing Councils of Colleges which over two years have operated without Councils.

He said the College needed internet facilities to make it easy for the students and the staff to carry their research work.

He asked the students to zealously safeguard the institution's properties saying,
"Dear students, make maximum use of the modest facilities at your disposal towards the achievement of your goals and objectives as a student. Utilize the library as best as you can. Management is feverishly trying to provide internet services on campus for both staff and students to access to enhance research, teaching and learning and other related activities. Do also make a conscious effort to take good care of the property at your disposal. Keep the environment clean always, appear decent on all occasions in and outside the college and avoid open defecation."

Touching on the 2018/19 academic season admissions, he disclosed that,"The total number applicants stood at 1010 for the two different programmes (B.Ed Primary Education & B.Ed Early Childhood Education). Out of this number only 345 met the admission requirements and were all offered admission."

He reaffirmed his administration's desire to increase the intake of female students in line with its gender equality vision.

"As a gender sensitive institution, the vision of the College has always been to make education more accessible to female applicants and just like the previous years, this year we tried bridging the gender gap by admitting all qualified female applicants. Unfortunately we still could not meet the male to female ratio of 1:1. I wish to appeal to our cherished female students to live lives worthy of emulation so that you can be seen as role models to the young ones to attract them to the institution", he said.

He said staff motivation remained management's major priority.

"With the introduction of the 4-Year B.Ed programme, the College has no choice other than improving upon both human and material resources. In this regard a number of tutors have enrolled in various Universities in a bid to upgrade themselves. We have two tutors currently pursuing PhD programmes in Art Education and Guidance and Counselling, 5 pursuing MPhil programmes in Early Childhood Education, Social Studies, English and Ghanaian Language", he added.

Additionally a number of the administrative staff have enrolled in a number of programmes in various Universities to upgrade themselves in conformity with our statutes as a College of Education.

"Since staff promotion is tied to Research and Publications, College Management in the last academic year organized a number of College-based workshops and sponsored staff to attend some others organized by some stakeholders like NCTE and T-TEL. One of such College-based workshops was targeted at building tutors capacity in the area of research and publications and I must say that a number of our tutors have since done some publications and applied for promotion." Mr Bertinus stated.

Adding that, "It is my hope that in the soonest future most of staff would have been promoted to Senior and other positions. I must say that the engagement of tutors in the Professional Development Sessions every Monday between 7:00 and 9:00 offer tutors the rare opportunity of sharing best practices with colleagues and thereby helping them to improve upon their professional values and attitudes, professional knowledge and professional practice, the key domains of the National Teachers’ Standards."

Mr. Adams Kaleo defended the mounting of a four year B.Ed Programme there. "The 4-year B. Ed Programme is geared towards the training of highly qualified and motivated teachers who are inspired to teach. The programme is divided into two phases, a first phase of course work for four years on College campus and phase 2 constitutes a 5th year of school placement for acquisition of teachers license.

The curriculum is a value driven curriculum in which the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework was driven by the nation’s core values of Honesty, Creativity and Responsible Citizenship with the intent of achieving SDG 4: “ensuring equitable quality inclusive education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

" The 4 Year Bachelor of Education curriculum is also a concurrent one where teachers subject content knowledge, pedagogy and assessment approaches and practical teaching skills are developed alongside each other. As an integrated curriculum, the 4 Year Bachelor of Education programme also seeks to prepare students to meet the requirements of the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework, be assessed against the National Teachers Standards (NTS) and to be able to teach the school curriculum."

He admonished the students to serve as change Ambassadors in their respective localities.

"The College education is geared towards making you holistic individuals well-endowed with analytical minds. This will enable you examine issues critically, develop logical reasoning sifting good from evil; rational behaviour from irrational behaviour; good citizenship from bad citizenship. Remember that rights are tied to responsibilities and where the rights of one ends marks the beginning of another’s rights."

"In recent times many of the youth in the country, especially those in our educational institutions are engaged in crimes like cyber fraud, drug abuse, armed robbery, prostitution, high level of arrogance and gross disrespect for authority and elders. These should be avoided. Vices such as nepotism, religious fanatism/extremism, tribalism, terrorism and occultism should also be avoided.

Let me further remind you that the college is an integral part of mother Ghana, and therefore operates under the laws of the Republic and we must for that matter respect the National laws. Let us strive to be law abiding citizens."

"Our differences underscore the fact we all coming from different geographical locations, cultures, families, and socio-religious backgrounds. Our cultural diversity has not however affected the immense tolerance level exhibited by the citizens of Ghana. As students we should be able to tolerate each other even under extreme cases of provocation. We should endeavour to inculcate the virtue of tolerance among ourselves in and outside the college. You must tolerate the views of others, even if you disagree with them. Listen to different opinions and always be mindful that in an academic environment different opinions and ideas enrich the quest for knowledge. There is unity in diversity".

Treat your colleagues and superiors in the College with civility and respect,Mr. Kaleo emphasized.