The staff of Komenda College of Education (KOMENCO) in the Central Region are kicking against courses under the Bachelor of Education degree programme for the 2018/2019 academic year.
[contextly_sidebar id=”VTiqPDyb4xw0Rg48PHuga4es4lI8uYxx”]They say the allocation of programmes to the College is “an anomaly” and that the very survival of the institution will be threatened if the set of programmes are maintained to be run in the coming academic year starting in September.
At a press conference on Wednesday at the school’s premises, the local branch Chairman of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association, Eric Sekyi said, the development may reduce admissions and eventually lead to the collapse of the college.
“The current reforms suggest that Komenda College should run Visual Arts, Home Economics, Agriculture, Mathematics & Science and B Ed. Technical programmes without the General Programme which is proven to be the most patronised in Komenda College”.
“Our past and current statistics indicate that about 70% of our students prefer the General Programme to the programmes allocated to us now”, the tutors asserted.
The Ministry of Education has rolled out a reform that will see public colleges of education across the nation offer Bachelor of Education programmes and has allotted different programmes to the various institutions.
Komenco which has been in existence for 70 years currently runs Diploma in Basic Education programmes in Maths and Science, Technical and General Programmes, and the staff say scrapping the General Programmes will render most of them redundant with time.
The tutors further complain that maintaining the allotted programmes will be unfair to female applicants.
“In addition, this arrangement discriminates against the minority gender (women) since majority (90%) of female students of the college offer General Programmes with the remaining 10% coming from the other Programmes (Mathematics & Technical, Mathematics & Science, and Science & Technical). It is important to note that Komenda College of Education is a co-educational institution”.
They accuse the Ministry of Education that it has unfairly given only OLA College of Education (a female institution) General Programmes in the Central Region, denying male applicants from the Region of applying for General Programmes at Komenda and Foso Colleges of education.
The tutors are calling on the sector Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), the Conference of Principals (PRINCOF), the Methodist Church Ghana, traditional authorities of the Komenda Traditional Area, the Old Students Association (KOSA) and all stakeholders to intervene to address the problem.
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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana