DACE Holds 14th Congregation Ceremony

December 14th, 2019 saw the occasion of Dambai College Education’s 14th Congregation ceremony for 2018 and 2019 batches of graduands on the diploma programme of the College. The event, which was held at the forecourt of the College Administration Block, had 498 awardees in all.

Along with Staff and Management of the College, Council Members, the Hon. Oti Regional Minister, Nana Owusu Yeboah, The Hon. MP for Krachi East Constituency, Hon. Micheal Djato, and the Hon. MCE, Hon Patrick Charty Jilimah, attended the Congregation. In addition, the ceremony was graced by Oti Regional Director of Education and Municipal / District Directors of Education of Krachi East, Krachi West, Krachi Nchumuru, Nkwanta South. Other prominent members of attendance at the ceremony were VOLTI Zone Principals of Colleges of Education and Rev. Sr. Elizabeth Amoako-Ahin of OLA College of Education at Cape Coast and Madam Margaret Lemaire, the immediate past Principal of Holy Child College of Education at Tarkoradi of CENTWEST Zone.

The Guest Speaker for the event was Dr. Sam Awuku, MD, TEACHAID Consulting Ltd and T-Tel key adviser for policy who gave an inspiring address centred on the theme “the introduction of the 4-year Bachelor of Education curriculum in Colleges of Education: the role of stakeholders and implications for national development

During his address, Dr. Sam Awuku specified that having great and good teachers and the quality education that Ghana so deserves would not happen by chance or unexpectedly. It entails us to take bold and thoughtful steps and initiatives. It involves bench marking Ghana’s teacher education landscape against the best in the world to inform the radical and redefinition of the education sector. It needs taking courageous steps towards making the provision of quality education a national priority. It demands aligning this priority with global and continental goals such as The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063 to ensure that the quality education that is provided is for all rather than only for a few – that is inclusive and equitable.

It is for this reason that the new 4-year Bachelor of Education Curriculum was introduced as part of the overall ongoing Teacher Education reforms in Ghana. The reform represents a brave step by government and policy makers to ensure that Ghana proactively responds to the global demand for quality education at the centre of which is a good and a professional teacher.

He said, the new curriculum was informed by approval of two important policy documents and two related policy directives as outlined in a memorandum signed on 27 September, 2017 by the Cabinet of the Republic of Ghana. The documents are National Teachers’ Standards (NTS) for Pre-service teachers and the National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework (NTECF). The orders from these policy documents are to convert Colleges of Education into University Colleges of Education of public universities offering education and design a new four-year Bachelor of Education curriculum for initial teacher education to be offered at the University Colleges of Education in affiliation to the five public Universities offering education curricular.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the curriculum was developed by Ghanaians from the Universities and Colleges of Education in line with the NTS and the NTECF. The National Accreditation Board has approved the new 4-year Bachelor of Education curricula of all five universities that international assessors have described as WORLD CLASS.

The new curriculum is aimed at preparing teachers imbued with professional skills, attitudes and values, and depth and breadth of content knowledge as well as the spirit of enquiry, innovation and creativity that will enable them to adapt to changing conditions, use inclusive strategies and engage in life-long learning (NTECF, 2017).”

Dr. Sam Awuku indicated that, this philosophy underpins the new 4-year B. Ed. curriculum designed to prepare teachers who have a passion for teaching and leadership, who are reflective practitioners, and who engage with members not only in the school community but also in the wider community, and act as potential agents of change (NTS, 2017).

The speaker advised the graduands to go and make other true teachers, cleaver accountants, doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers and honest, creative and responsible citizens in the primary schools and Junior high schools you may find yourselves. He tasked them to be the light that brightens any corner you find yourself.

Hon Kwasi Owusu Yeboah also addressed the Congregation; Oti Regional Minister who was the Guest of Honour for the ceremony voiced his deepest gratitude to the Governing Council, Management and Staff of College under the leadership of Mrs. Benedicta Awusi Atiku as Principal for providing the College with transformational and developmental leadership. The Minister added, “in view of the introduction of the four-year Bachelor of Education programme in Colleges of Education with its resultant increase in student population, government has embarked on a programme to expand the equipment and infrastructural capacities of the Colleges to enable them absorb the expected increase’

Hon. Owusu Yeboah also assured the gathering that apart from the ongoing projects in the College, there would soon be commencement of additional infrastructural projects to supplement the existing ones and give the College a face-lift.

Mrs. Benedicta Awusi Atiku, the Principal of the College congratulated the graduates for the achievement chalked. The Principal urged the graduands to be life-long learners in order to be contemporary and be worthy apostles of the College that has given them a profession.  Mrs. Atiku used the occasion to thank members of the governing council, former leaders and staff of the College for their selfless service.

Giving a report on the academic programmes of the college, the Principal informed the congregation that the College currently offers the following academic programmes on regular basis:

3-Year Diploma in Basic Education (General Programme)

4-Year Bachelor of Education (Basic Education) with specialization in English and Ghanaian Languages, History and Geography, Religious and Moral Education and Performing Arts, and Primary Education.

She was quick to add that in July 2019, the College in collaboration with University for Development Studies, started Sandwich Programmes. The following programmes were mounted in the maiden session.

3-Year Diploma in Education. This will proceed onto the Post-Diploma programme on successful completion of the Diploma to gain the basic requirement for teaching

Post Diploma ( 2 Yr. B. Ed. in JHS Specialism)

Post Diploma (2yr. B. Ed. in Upper Grade Specialism Education)

Post Diploma (2 Yr. B. Ed in Early Grade Specialism Education)

Mrs. Atiku said Academic Board has proposed the introduction of new academic programmes on regular and sandwich basis. To this end, the College is currently working on getting approval to introduce the following academic programmes on regular basis:

4-Yr. B. Ed in Early Childhood Education

4 Yr. B. Ed in Science and Technology Education

In the area of Governance, accreditation and capacity building, she pointed out that the College carries cooperative decision making in order to represent the rich ideas of every sector in the day-to-day management practices. The SRC, TEWU, CETAG, and other bodies are duly represented at various levels in coming up with decisions to improve the College. “The college is operating under the accreditation of the National Accreditation Board. A few months ago, NAB conducted its annual review of our College. I am happy to inform all our guests that the preliminary reports indicate that the College has improved significantly this year in the area of institutional governance”.

Touching on renovation and physical environment, the Principal mentioned that, minor renovation works have been carried out on both the male and female students’ dormitories, classroom/lecture blocks, dining hall and other facilities. In addition, some of the contractors have returned to site. Consequently, the College gate and fence wall project, which was about 60% complete, is now about 98% complete. Works on the College auditorium, which was only at the footing level, is now progressing steadily. Currently, the works on the College Administration block as well as campus access roads have stalled.

The principal of the College also presented a number of challenges the College faces. Prominent among them is inadequate infrastructure. Administrative, academic and residential infrastructure are hugely limited. The main classroom block of the College was built over 40 years ago. Furthermore, the College has no central administration block. The Principal and Vice Principal operate from two small cubicles attached to the Teachers Resource Centre block. The general office of the College is currently situated in one of the classrooms at the classroom block. Other offices are scattered in wooden structures and elsewhere. The Principal passionately appeal to all stakeholders to come to the aid of the College.

The College has presented two batches of graduands – the 2018 and 2019 batches. For the 2019 batch, the College presented 206 graduands of this number 3 are graduated with first class, 39 second class upper, 71 second class lower, 59 third class and 34 with pass. The 2018 batch of graduating students are 276 in number. Three (3) of the number are graduating with first class. Those graduating with second class upper are 63. The number graduating with second-class lower are 91, 76 students are graduating with third class and those graduating with pass are 43 students. In addition, graduating are 16 students who were part of previous year batches but could not complete their course work and other obligations to allow them graduate. In total, the College presented 498 students for the 14th Congregation. The first class graduands were awarded a citation each. Master Akorli Godfred was presented with the Special Creative Award as being the composer of the College patriotic song.

Overall, the occasion proved to be a successful one and we congratulate our various Graduates on their outstanding achievements.

Source: DACE ICT Centre

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