The Colleges of Education Weekly Journal is a weekly online newspaper that provides a forum for diverse views, discussion and news across Ghana’s education system. Since its inception, the Journal has focused on using media advocacy as a critical tool to facilitate conversations around teacher education reforms.
The Journal celebrated its third anniversary on October 29, 2021, and invited T-TEL to join them on a College Tour to Gambaga College of Education in the North East Region. The tour aimed to highlight the College’s achievements and build a relationship between the College and the media.
Principal of Gambaga College of Education welcoming the Director in charge of Tertiary Education from the MoE
Present at the event was the Director in Charge of Tertiary Education, Dr. Eric Nkansah – who represented the Deputy Minister of Education, the former Chairman of the Governing Council of Gambaga College of Education, Mr Kolbilla Dan, the College Principal, Mr Kassim Nantomah, the Vice-principal, staff of the College and the media.
Director in Charge of Tertiary Education, Dr. Eric Nkansah addressing participants
Participants toured the College’s facilities to get a feel of what the college offers. They began by visiting the administration block, the library, dormitories, and the College’s annex, where other infrastructural developments are taking place.
Touring the College Library
Field visit to the College’s new site
Following the tour, there was a media engagement where the Principal catalogued some successes of the College. He gave firsthand insights into how the College has managed to produce inspirational teachers who are making significant impact in their classrooms.
In his opening remark the Principal said he was happy to host the Journal’s Anniversary as he believed that the exposure would propel the College to greater heights. Gambaga College started in 2012 as a community college with 310 students and 12 tutors before being absorbed by government in 2015. Currently the student population is over 800, with 35 teaching staff. The College runs three programmes – Early Grade Education, Primary and Junior High School education.
Gambaga College of Education Principal briefing participants after the tour
The Principal mentioned that the College had recently managed to construct new male and female dormitories and a conference room. The student body, through the Student Representative Council, have also supported the college by building a two-unit dormitory.
The College expressed appreciation for T-TEL’ support through the Payment-by-Results mechanism, which was an initiative designed to incentivize Colleges of Education to work towards their agreed improvement targets, and which enabled them to provide a changing room for female students. T-TEL also supported the College with fairly used office equipment comprising chairs, tables, cabinets, laptops, computers, printers, and tablets.
“T-TEL also supported the College with some amount of money for which we were able to expand our IT infrastructure to cover all parts of the campus” – Mr. Nantomah, Principal of Gambaga College
Despite these successes the College still faces significant infrastructural challenges and hope that the media tour will help bring further improvements in the College. The College has a strong focus on Quality Assurance and developed a monitoring framework to track performance which has contributed to increased enrolment. The College has also developed a strategic plan and policies that guide their operations and help them achieve objectives.
Speaking on behalf of the Deputy Minister for Education, the Director in Charge of Tertiary Education congratulated the Journal on its anniversary and acknowledged its efforts and support in teacher education. He was impressed with how the journal has helped fill some gaps in teacher education by communicating the various changes that have occurred in Ghana’s Colleges of Education.
The Journal desires to continue advocating for change in teacher education and its primary aim is to report critical issues, challenges, and successes in the education sector to educate and inform stakeholders associated with education in Ghana and beyond.
Group photo of management of Gambaga College of Education, Dir. in charge of Tertiary Education, a T-TEL rep and Colleges of Education Weekly Journal team
To mark the Journal’s 3rd Anniversary, T-TEL’s Executive Director, Robin Todd, shared a congratulatory message with the journal.
T-TEL would like to sincerely thank the Colleges of Education Weekly Journal for their efforts to deliver high quality and informative journalism which has helped to raise the profile of Colleges of Education and teacher education in Ghana. Over the past few years Ghana has embarked on an ambitious set of teacher education reforms, centred around the roll-out of a new Bachelor of Education degree in Initial Teacher Education by universities and affiliated Colleges of Education.
These reforms, despite some challenges, have been groundbreaking and successful but it remains the case that many Ghanaians do not know about these achievements and reforms which have been described as ‘truly world class’ by international experts. The Journal has played an important role in raising awareness of these reforms and challenging those of us who work in the teacher education system to do more to address implementation issues and concerns.
In T-TEL’s view the Journal has always strived to write informed, balanced and fair articles. We would like to thank Larry and his staff for their support to T-TEL’s communications campaigns over the past couple of years and for helping to publicize our partnership with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission in 2020 when we delivered mobile phones and SIM cards to Colleges of Education across the country. The Journal was also the first media outlet to carry the news about T-TEL’s transition from a donor-funded project to a Ghanaian registered and owned not-for-profit organization.
I am happy that, in our own small way, T-TEL has been able to support the Journal by providing training to their management and staff to help prepare them for the challenges ahead as they continue their journey to provide high quality reporting on our teacher education system.
T-TEL values the work that the Journal carries out and we are always available to provide advice, guidance and support as the Journal looks to reach greater heights over the coming years. I am certain that you have a bright future ahead of you.