Wa, Feb. 11, GNA – Mr Salih Saeed, the Acting Principal of the Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, has advised students to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing and frequent hand washing to avoid contracting the disease.
He said COVID had presented its set of challenges in the education sector, the most critical being managing academic activities safely amid the growing threat of the pandemic.
“There is also a constant warning of the changing behaviour of the virus in the world and Ghana, in particular, and this development could disrupt academic work and further worsen it if care is not taken,” he explained.
Mr Saeed said this during this year’s matriculation ceremony for the Bachelor of Education Programme of the College in Wa on Thursday.
He cautioned unvaccinated students to take the jabs because they would be required to produce the vaccination card before being allowed to take part in all activities of the college.
The college received a total of 786 admission applications for the 2021/2022 academic year, but 526 applicants were offered admission.
The total number of registered freshmen and women stood at 383, comprising 204 males and 179 females and two visually impaired, bringing the male to female ratio to 53:47 for the 2021/2022 academic year.
Mr Saeed said despite the financial challenges, some GETfund infrastructure projects were ongoing and the management was doing everything possible to get them completed.
Works on the renovation of three large lecture theatre blocks were completed and handed over to the college.
He assured the students that management was working to complete all ongoing Getfund projects, including students accommodation and lecture halls to help ease congestion.
He said the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission had started the process of providing a 400 hostel capacity to all the 46 colleges of education in Ghana.
Professor Dandy George Dampson, a Director at the Institute for Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development (ITECPD), said for the past two years, the University of Education, Winneba had been partnering and mentoring NJA College of Education to train quality and professional teachers.
Professor Dampson, who stood in for the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Professor Mawutor Avoke, explained that the partnership and mentorship, over the years, had been very cooperative and productive and “we have the trust of each other”.
He said the University of Education, Winneba, was the leading University of human resource needs of educational institutions and pledged to ensure that it achieved the mission of training high calibre teachers and educational administrators in partnership with NJA College of education.
“We will continue to assist, train and retrain, mentor, guide and provide suggestions to enable this college to compete with the rest of the colleges in Ghana. It is our hope to see in the near future the introduction of market-driven programmes in the college,” he said.
Professor Dampson announced that the ITECPD was working to get the first batch of promotions to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to certify and facilitate promotions, which, he said, had been long overdue.
GNA