T-TEL holds two-day workshop on use of Challenge Fund

Nine colleges of education (CoEs) out of the 46 in the country, who benefited from the GH₵2.5 million Challenge Fund from the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) have trumpeted their achievements implementing their respective projects.

The colleges are the Peki CoE, the Presby CoE, the Jasikan CoE, the Presby Women CoE and the SDA CoE.

The others are St Theresa's CoE, the Agogo CoE, the Dambai and Akatsi CoEs.

Each of the project colleges received amounts varying between Gh₵50,000 and Gh₵225,000 to implement their projects between 12 and 18 months.

The amount for a project depends on the number of colleges that teamed up to take up the project. For instance, Peki, St Francis, Amedzofe and EP COEs teamed up for two projects.

For “Providing safe environment for teacher trainees in Peki, Amedzofe St Francis and EP CoEs through partnership between the colleges, districts and schools in South Dayi, North Dayi, Afajato South, Asogyaman and Ho West districts and Hohoe Municipality” as a project, the Team secured GHc225,000 while the Jasikan CoE which is running a project alone titled, “Preparing Early Childhood Education Teacher Trainees with practical teaching skills to teach at the early childhood stage” is operating with GH₵59,178 .

The two-day workshop was the third in the series where colleges that benefited from the challenge fund showcase what they had been able to do with the fund and the challenges they encountered in the course of the project.

It was also time to give the Challenge Fund under the T-TEL managers assurance that the project would be sustained even as the fund folds up.

Each project college(s) outlined what they would be doing to sustain the projects they had used the fund for.

While others pledged to rely on the alumni as resources instead of hiring consultants, others are also looking at raising funds locally. Others are also pledging to use local and improvised teaching materials instead looking for money to buy teaching materials.

The workshop was , therefore, an opportunity for the colleges to learn from each other and adopt new ways and methods to sustain their projects.

The participating colleges of the various projects mounted exhibitions of what they had been able to do with the Challenge Fund they received from T-TEL.

The T-TEL, which is a four-year government of Ghana programme with support by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is supporting CoEs to build their capabilities and capacities.

In 2016, the T-TEL launched the Challenge Fund to reward and promote innovative practices in teaching, learning and management practices of CoEs by disbursing about ghc2.5 million to the colleges as a way of supporting the 46 public CoEs on their path to becoming tertiary centres of excellence.

The two-day workshop, on the theme, “Mobilising local resources and partnerships to improve the professional preparation of pre-service teachers in Ghana’s colleges of education,” brought together representatives of the participating colleges and some stakeholders to share their successes and challenges and how to sustain the programme, which has officially ended.