Colleges of education mount poster exhibition

Beneficiary colleges of education of the Challenge Fund of the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) have mounted an exhibition to tell their stories of how the fund was used.

The colleges which are the last batch of the 32 that benefited from the Gh₵2.5 million Challenge Fund met to share their success stories, learn from best practices and discuss ways to sustain their projects with the end of the funding from T-TEL.

Those colleges which were among the last batch were Offinso, Enchi, Ada, Bimbilla, Wesley, Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya and the Accra colleges of education.

Each college received between Gh₵50,000 and Gh₵225,000 to pursue a chosen project that is considered as a pressing need of their respective colleges.

Exhibitions
Each of the colleges took officials from the fund through how the funds were used to improve teaching and learning outcomes.

They also put up strong reasons for the projects they had selected and how they intended to sustain the projects after the exit of T-TEL.

Success stories

Offinso College of Education
The Offinso College of Education undertook a project titled, “Making practicum process effective at the college and target partner school levels through TLM application and strong stakeholder collaboration.”

The projected overall outcome of the project seeks to achieve an improved and effective practicum process at both college and basic school levels within the Offinso College of Education coverage area (Offinso Municipal and Afigya-Kwabre Districts).

The Project Lead of the college, Mr Emmanuel Atuahene told the fund managers that the practicum process had improved as 69 (98 per cent) of 70 key stakeholders (tutors, traditional area, municipal, district education office, Mentors, teacher trainees, municipal, district administration) were fully involved, recognized and participated effectively in the execution of the project.

Ada and Mount Mary Colleges of Education
The Ada and Mt Mary Colleges of Education, which partnered to embark on a project titled, “Using e-portfolio system to improve teacher trainees’ practice of teaching,” was considered as one of the most innovative projects.

Explaining the project, the Project Lead, Mr Dr Luke Amateye Tettehfio said, even though the supervisors were not physically present in the classroom to watch how the trainees were teaching, the lessons were videoed and uploaded on a portal for the supervisors to assess the work of the trainees.

Wesley College of Education
For its part, the Wesley College of Education, which embarked on a project titled, “Strengthening college-school partnership: A new approach to quality initial teacher preparation” recorded an average score of 75 per cent in the performance of mentees teaching practice.

Presenting the success story of the college, the Project Lead Mr William Banson provided graphs, tables and photographs as evidence of the success of the project in the college.

Enchi College of Education
With the Project titled, “The development of tutor pedagogical and TLM application skills for enhanced teacher trainees performance,” the Enchi College of Education was excited that at the end of the project, “90 per cent and 80 per cent of tutors and mentees respectively exhibited proficiency in modern pedagogical skills, while 86 per cent and 85 per cent of tutors and mentees efficiently and effectively prepared and used TLMs respectively”.

Bimbilla and partners
The project at the E/P/ College of Education at Bimbilla with partners as the Bagabaga and Tamale Colleges of Education in the Northern Region, however, encountered major challenges and was terminated half way.

Project Lead, Mr Salifu Anas Seidu was however convinced that if given the chance, the project could achieve resounding success.

Accra College of Education
The Accra College of Education, which pursued a project titled, “Innovative strategies towards improving trainee teachers’ pedagogical competencies and practical classroom skills, achieved 74.9 per cent improvement in pedagogical competencies and practical classroom skills of targeted teacher trainees.

The Project Lead of the College, Mr Clement Afriyie-Oppong said at the end of the project, the interest and enthusiasm of tutors in supervision had improved and that, as a result, the number of tutors who turned out for teaching practice supervision and assessment had increased significantly.

He said the tutors now supervised other subject areas with more confidence, citing for instance that an English tutor could now supervise Science or Mathematics lessons without much disparity in the scores given.

Nasrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education
The Nasrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Wa, undertook a project titled, “Increasing intake of visually impaired teacher trainees while building technical skills of tutors to teach visually impaired in the college”.

The project, which attracted lots of commendations, was said to have recorded a resounding success in the increased in-take of visually impaired teacher trainees by 175 per cent (12 to 33).

The Project Lead, Alhaji Saeed Salih, who presented the project on behalf of the college, said in addition, 14 of the 42 tutors who, ordinarily did not teach visually impaired trainees, could now write their names and construct simple sentences in the braille.