Teacher Trainees in the various Colleges of Education are in dilemma with regards to the reality behind the five Semester Programme that was introduced in the early days of the new Academic year.
There had been mixed reactions from students ,most especially the Level 300 students concerning the sustainability of the Programme.
Meanwhile the SRC President of Mount Mary College of Education Mr. Effah Boateng Benjamin ,also made certain revelations with regards to the validity and possible sustainability of the Programme.
According a statement issued by him, tittled ‘NEW ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT ‘,he stated that the five(5) semester program that was introduced in the early days of the academic year has no future as at now.
He emphasized,that the policy which was introduced during 2014 batch was a proposal sent by Princof to the academic board of U.C.C to enable students acquire more content knowledge before they get posted to various schools.
This proposal according to him ,was seen by the professional board to be good so they accepted and implemented it. However before U.C.C can implement a Nationwide policy it is subject to the approval of the Ministry of Education but on this very policy,the professional board failed to make it official to the ministry.
His argument had been ,that
1.Why did Professional Board make a national policy without writing officially to inform the Ministry of Education.?
2.It is going to decrease the enrollment of students for next academic year therefore shuttering the dream of the government to increase the intake of students and train more teachers.
3.There will be pressure on school properties and accommodation will be problem and also there will be the need to employ additional staff members especially non teaching kitchen staff. Therefore, the Ministry of Education has written to U.C.C and princof to abrogate the five semester program.
Due to this princof has also proposed that as Students go out next semester,they must be allowed to go to classrooms for two days in the week.
The three extra days will be used for academic work. All Mentees would have to gather at a vantage point so that the masters responsible for the five(5) courses left will come round and teach students for the three days.After that there will be an end of semester examination which they would come back and write at the end of the semester in their respective colleges.
Until the issues surrounding the five semester programme is resolved,Students should get prepared for any eventuality.
Source:EducationGhana.net