By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Government has received parliamentary approval to complete all abandoned projects initiated by the Ghana Education Trust Fund, GETFund.
Following this, GETFund has already committed itself to completing all such projects, particularly in the public Colleges of Education, within the next 18 months.
Additionally, the government is to distribute a bus to all the Colleges for academic and extracurricular activities.
The Deputy Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, Dr. Ahmed Jinapor, who announced this in Kumasi, appealed to the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, CETAG to call off its strike for teaching and learning to resume since their concerns are being given appropriate consideration.
He was addressing a grand durbar to climax the Centenary celebration of the Wesley College of Education.
Since the launch of the 100-year anniversary celebrations, a number of on campus and outdoor activities have been organized to commemorate the milestone with the durbar of all key stakeholders including old students, priests of the Methodist Church, Ghana, government functionaries and current students being the climax.
The Acting Principal of the College, Kennedy Ameyaw Baah, mentioned a modern and bigger auditorium, more classrooms and a school bus as some of the urgent needs of the College.
Mr. Baah noted, however, that, in spite of the myriad of challenges the College is facing, it is still make giant strides in and outside the classroom.
“With a total of 410 students, the College recorded 32 First Class Honours, 151, 132, 55 and 40 Second Class Upper, Second Class Lower, Third Class and Pass respectively. Tje College, indeed, a Centre of Excellence”, the Ag Principal announced.
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana, Most Reverend Dr. Paul Boafo, described the setting up of WESCO and its achievements so far as an example of the Church’s greater contributions to national development.
The Deputy Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, GTEC, Dr. Ahmed Jinapor, disclosed that the government is giving priority consideration to concerns raised by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, CETAG for which they have declared a strike for days now.
In addition to this, the government has secured Parliamentary approval to complete all abandoned projects initiated by the Ghana Education Trust Fund, GETFund in the Colleges of Education across the country within 18 months plus the distribution of a bus each and therefore pleaded with CETAG to call off its industrial action.
Dr. Jinapor said, “Colleges of Education are going through a transitional process of what they are intended to be relative to teacher education in this country. And while we go through these processes, it is expected that we may be confronted with challenges that might affect our conditions of service and output. As a Commission, we believe that such happenings can and should be addressed through dialogue without recourse to strikes and industrial unrests.”
Management of the College paid tribute to all past and present leaders of the Methodist Church, Ghana, staff and students for their contribution to the growth of the College and presented gifts to those whose efforts have been outstanding as an appreciation.
About WESCO
The Wesley College of Education commonly called WESCO was established by the Wesleyan Church now Methodist Church, Ghana in 1922 at Aburi in the Eastern region and later re-located to its present location at Old Tafo near Kumasi in the Ashanti region.
It even though the original mandate was to train Ministers and Catechists for the Methodist Church, WESCO later changed to a two-year Teachers’ Certificate ‘B’ training institution into the current status as one of Ghana’s foremost Colleges of Education providing four-year Bachelor of Education degree emphasizing Science, Mathematics and French while priding itself as the one having a place for the visually impaired teacher trainees.
WESCO’s initial student population has increased to more than 1,700 presently, the same way the number of both academic and non-teaching staff strength have shot up during the 100-year period.