St Monica’s College of Education gets new lecture, residential halls
The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has inaugurated two projects at the St Monica’s College of Education (MONICO) at Asante-Mampong as part of activities marking the college’s 11th congregation.
The projects, which comprise a four-storey lecture hall and a three-storey hall of residence, were constructed with internally generated funds of the college.
New curriculum
In his address, Dr Opoku Prempeh said the four-year BEd curriculum for colleges of education had advantages for both the colleges and students and was meant to prepare teachers on ways to improve learning outcomes of Ghanaian children.
He said international assessors had described the new curriculum which had been introduced in all the 46 colleges of education in the country as “appropriate for the grade level specialism with adequate adjustments made to focus on the specific needs for the age group.”
Dr Opoku Prempeh said the curriculum was built around three pillars, namely Subject Knowledge, Language and Literacy Pedagogy and Supported Teaching with emphasis on cross-cutting issues such as equity and inclusion, information and communications technology (ICT), core values and transferable skills, among others.
Statistics
In all, 453 students graduated with Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) certificates, while 161 students graduated with Untrained Teacher Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) certificates.
The Principal of the college, Canon Mrs Christiana Adwoa Sobotie, said the college was committed to attaining higher standards in teaching and learning.
She said the college was pursuing policies and initiatives that would ensure that students from the college maintained excellence in their academic work and became more responsible and competent in their career.
She said under the new curriculum reform, the college had been affiliated to the University of Cape Coast and was thus upgraded to the status of a university college.
Mrs Sobotie said the college had already started implementing the new curriculum reform with the current first-year students who are pursuing a four-year degree programme in both basic and junior high school education.
ICT
Mrs Sobotie said to enhance the computer literacy of the teacher trainees, the management of the college made a request to the US Embassy for funds to support the college build a new 120-seater ICT laboratory which it was using at present.
She said the embassy also provided the college with ICT learning tools made up of 170 computer desks, 100 pieces of swivel chairs, two projectors and six air-conditioners.
She expressed her gratitude to the embassy for its kind gesture.
Mrs Sobotie appealed to the Minister of Education to help complete the school’s 1,500-seater multi-purpose auditorium which had been abandoned since 2012 for lack of funds.