University of Education works on new module
The University of Education, Winneba is working on a new module to enhance its sandwich programme in order not to deplete the classrooms of teachers who wish to explore the opportunity to pursue higher education, while still teaching.
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Currently, the sandwich programme is run during the long vacation period to afford teachers and other working class the opportunity to improve themselves academically and professionally, but it is expected that with the new module, it could be ran all year round without necessarily interrupting their work.
The framework, which is being developed, is to help more teachers to enrol for the programme, enhance their capacities and thereby impact positively on the lives of students.
Matriculation ceremonies
The Vice Chancellor for the university, Prof. Mawutor Avoke, announced this at two matriculation ceremonies at its Mampong College of Agriculture and the Tanoso College of Technology in the Ashanti Region.
More than 3,000 fresh students pursuing different programmes including 1,325 from the Tanoso campus were admitted to the university.
“The emerging global trend of acquiring teaching competence through the sandwich training programme has become a viable option for solving the problem of teacher quality and quantity,” Prof. Avoke said.
He said since the sandwich programme was designed with Ghana Education Service (GES) staff in mind, the new option was not to disrupt the GES calendar.
Collaboration
The vice chancellor appealed to the Ministry of Education and the GES to involve the university when the need arises for the modification of their academic calendar so that many teachers could be enrolled to develop their skills.
He also told the freshmen and women that the university had put in place a full complement of lecturers and staff, as well as the requisite teaching and learning material, to fully equip them and advised them to take advantage of the numerous ultra-modern facilities on campus, including the school library, to build their knowledge base.
Job-specific competencies
In a related development, Prof. Mawutor Avoke has addressed a matriculation ceremony for sandwich students at Winneba during which he advised university graduates to use entrepreneurial skills they acquire while in school to explore job-specific competencies, skills and avenues or opportunities in the private sector to propel economic growth and national development, reports Gilbert Mawuli Agbey, WINNEBA
According to him, that would help them discard the idea of relying on the central government for employment after their studies.
He said the terrain of learning in the country had seen massive improvement and UEW had introduced market-driven programmes to link the classrooms to industry.
He stated that such a move was to give students comparative advantage over students studying in other places within the sub-region vis-a-vis accessing decent employment.
He stated that the UEW, since its inception, had made enormous strides in student enrolment by increasing access to tertiary education, noting that student numbers of all aspects of learning in the university kept on rising steadily.
Decline in admissions
He mentioned that student enrolment for the sandwich programme this year witnessed a decline, saying that a total of 1,488 applications were received for undergraduate programmes during the 2016/2017 sandwich period out of which 1,152 were offered admission.
However, he stated that at the close of registration, a total of 690 students had registered for the various undergraduate programmes as against 3,122 who had registered during the 2015/2016 season.
He added that 698 applications were received for the postgraduate programmes out of which 543 were admitted and 454 registered as compared to 1,113 in the 2015/2016.
He urged them to meticulously go through the programmes to equip themselves with the requisite skills, competencies, hard work and a high sense of responsibility needed in the education sector.
