University of Ghana currently offers Education programmes.
A four year Bachelor of Education Curriculum to be rolled out in October 2024 has been launched by the School of Education and Leadership, College of Education. The occasion was also used to unveil the six colleges of education affiliated to the University, which was performed by Mr. Felix Nyarko-Pong, Chairman of the College of Education Advisory Board.
Prof. Patrick Ferdinand Ayeh Kumi, Provost College of Health Sciences, who chaired the ceremony on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, said that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 sought to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all. This, he noted, involved preparing and equipping all with the relevant 21st Century education and productive skills to achieve the desired goal.
He said contemporary education demands that teachers exhibit compassion, love, kindness, empathy, patience, grit, perseverance and respect for learners in their work, adding that teachers ought to have passion for teaching and genuine belief in every child’s ability to succeed and cater for the diverse needs of learners of all backgrounds while being skilled at classroom management.
Emphasizing on the need for the new pre-tertiary curriculum, Prof. Ayeh-Kumi said that the 4 year Bachelor of Education Degree will provide teacher trainees with sufficient time, intellectual rigour and exposure to practical teaching to enable them to be trained to the standard which Ghana deserves and require. With respect to proper standards, he opined that it will enable teachers to demonstrate the competencies required in the 21st century classroom, inspire children to learn, raise the status of the teaching profession, make it more attractive to new entrants and at the same time, improve the quality of teachers
He stressed on the need for teachers to exhibit professionalism, noting that professionalism creates an atmosphere of trust between teachers and stakeholders as well as persuade policy makers to engage teachers in curriculum development and make them autonomous and confident.
Outlining the reasons for poor performance of students in developing countries, Prof. Ayeh-Kumi stated that many initial teacher education programmes have outlived their usefulness as they have not been reformed in decades in line with modern trends of knowledge and skills acquisition. In addition he stated that in some cases, prospective teachers are trained for levels of education which are different from those at which they teach.