Target for trained teachers to be met

Alhaji Limuna Mohammed-Muniru, Upper East Regional Minister, has reiterated Government�s determination to achieve 95 per cent target in the training of teachers at all levels by the year 2015. The Regional Minister, who is also in charge of Human Resource and Scholarships, stated this during the 3rd Congregation of Saint John Bosco College of Education at Navrongo. He announced that as part of measures to help achieve the dream, the Ghana Partnership for Education Grant would be used to train at least 5,000 teachers in the Untrained Teachers Diploma-in-Basic Education (UTDIBE) qualification by the target year. �Government together with its donor partners will support 57 deprived districts and basic schools in planning, monitoring and delivery of basic education services in the deprived districts in the country. We are therefore entreating you to give us time to address all these challenges that are confronting the education sector in general and teacher education in particular,� the Minister intimated. Alhaji Mohammed�Muniru stated that government recognized colleges of education as bastion of human resource development for the training of children, and said that explained why it did not hesitate to pass the law to make colleges of education tertiary institutions. He assured colleges of education that government was committed to providing the needed logistics and infrastructure, including enhancing teachers� salaries and conditions to make them deliver efficiently. The Regional Minister urged the graduates to exhibit a high sense of professionalism in their teaching, and to also imbibe good morals in children, including inculcating in them good sanitation practices. The Principal of the College, Mr Alfred Abugre Ndago urged government to invest heavily in teacher education to ensure the promotion of quality education for national development. He stressed that �the quality of human capital is directly linked to the quality of education the nation offers her citizens.� The Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, Chairman of the College�s Council, expressed dismay at the spate of the annual migration of teachers to other lucrative jobs, and called on government to ensure that the teaching profession was accorded the necessary honour it deserved, to curtail the problem. The College scored 100 per cent in the Diploma in Basic Education Examinations. A total of 278 students were awarded certificates for successfully completing the course.