Teacher Trainees To Stage Demo

Betty Mould-Iddrisu

INFORMATION GATHERED by DAILY GUIDE indicates that the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG), which comprises students in the various Teacher Training Colleges across the country, is preparing to stage a demonstration.

The demonstration is in reaction to fee increments and the lack of resources and infrastructure, which have made it difficult for them to learn.

According to a source, TTAG will hit the streets come October this year to register their displeasure about the way government has increased their tuition fees from GH¢ 300 to GH¢ 600 for the next academic year.

The source further hinted that the students had discovered that their diploma certificate given them at the end of their three-year course was illegal as it was not backed by law.

DAILY GUIDE 's source noted that after ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor raised the Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) to tertiary status, and a bill for that matter was placed before cabinet, nothing had been done to pass it into law.

DAILY GUIDE 's investigations revealed that members of TTAG now lived in fear since they felt their certificates might be rejected if they used it to apply for further studies.

A TTC lecturer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the situation as serious, adding that the colleges around the country did not know where they stood as tertiary institutions.

According to him, even though training colleges were now regarded as tertiary institutions and administered by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), their appointments came from the Ghana Education Service Council (GESC); a situation he said should not have been so.

He noted that it was only the NCTE which had the mandate to regulate the activities of the training colleges and GESC.

The lecturer revealed that lecturers were not motivated to work because of inadequate resources and insufficient salary, explaining that they were also obligated to be on the same pay roll as those in tertiary institutions.

Lamenting on admissions into the over 38 colleges in the country, the lecturer said admissions were now on protocol basis, adding the regional ministers, Municipal, Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCE's) brought their tall lists of applicants, thus denying competent and qualified applicants the chance to get entry into the schools.

He has therefore called on government to intervene to redeem the image of TTC in the country to prevent the colleges from collapsing.

 From Sarah Owusu-Darlington, Cape Coast