NCHICO chalks successes in 3rd graduation

by Alfred Adams
Enchi College of Education (Enchico) has graduated 173 professional teachers at its third graduation ceremony held at the weekend, with Cecil Jones Ahenkorah adjudged the overall best student.

It was gratifying to note that the performance of the gradaunts was impressive and unprecedented in the academic history of the school.

This was because, for the first time, the college was able to produce a first class student, 89 second class diplomats, 67 students having third class, and 16 scoring pass.

Delivering a speech at the third graduation ceremony, Madam Victoria Aidoo, Principal of the Enchi College of Education (Enchico), was very enthused about the remarkable improvement in the performance of the students with respect to students' work, quiz competitions, staff performance and sporting activities.

The rest are community participation, outreach for teacher development, and staff accommodation projects amongst others. She said the college had really distinguished itself and made the entire Aowin-Suaman district very popular at the national level.

This is because, a series of quiz competitions held for all colleges of education in the country to access their performances saw Enchico excel, which made the light of the college shine above the horizons of the other colleges.

Enchico, according to the Principal, won the inter-college central-western zone quiz competition, came second during the southern-Ghana zone, and eventually won the grand finale to become the overall best among the colleges of education in Ghana.

In sporting activities, Madam Aidoo said for the first time in the annals of the college, the college won gold in the men's soccer and bronze in the female category. It also won the overall best football prize and other prizes in athletics during the zonal games of colleges of education.

On his part, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Smeck Ackah, pointed out that the improvement of the education sector was one of the issues on Ghana's developmental agenda.

In pursuit of restoring the befitting standards of the education system, governments have made various efforts with the view to ensuring that the Education Service fulfills the expectations of the individual, as well as make available the requisite human resource capital for national development.

The deputy Minister stressed that it was the right for every child and young person to have access to quality education, not only to be able to earn a living, but that a nation of educated, skilled, well-informed and morally sound people builds a just and prosperous society.

He said the focus of the government had been the reduction of barriers on entry to primary education, and the creation of awareness among parents and pupils of the benefits of receiving primary education. It was in this light that the government increased the Capitation Grant and expanded the School Feeding Programme.

Deputy Minister Ackah continued, however, that teacher deployment was of much concern to the government, in that equitable deployment of teachers, in terms of numbers, experience, and qualifications, was vital to the achievement of quality education for all, especially at the basic level.

The Regional Director of Education, Mr. Augustus Nii Lante Cleland, highlighted on high attrition rate and inadequate number of teachers as the major challenges confronting the directorate.

He, therefore, appealed to the newly-trained teachers to exhibit a high level of commitment and hard work in order to justify the cost of training.

It is on record that one phenomenon of basic education in Ghana in recent times has been the downward trend of the performance of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination, and this has been a disturbing issue in the country.

The Ghana Education Service has, therefore, put in place a number of measures to mitigate the problem.