MAKE TEACHER TRAINING TECHNOLOGY-BASED (PAGE 16)

THE Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Reverend Prof Emmanuel Adow Obeng, has stressed the need for a change in the current system of training teachers to a more responsive, technology-based system.
That, he said, would go a long way to transform the present state of education in sub-Saharan Africa.
Addressing the opening of an international conference on teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa, Rev Prof Obeng said teachers constituted an important element in the achievement of the Education For All and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commitments that had been globally set for all countries.
He said the large number of teachers needed to transform the present state of education in sub-Saharan Africa could not be trained through what he described as the “brick-and-mortar” campus-based training system.
Rev Professor Obeng said the emergence of affordable communication technologies provided a more efficient way of training teachers through the “brick-and-click” system (that is, using the affordable communication technologies).
He said it was in that light that Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA), a consortium, had developed the largest teacher education programme using available and affordable new technology and communication tools which enhance the rapid development and dissemination of materials and tools.
He said TES had also developed the Open Education Resources Movement with the philosophy of adapt and share and social networking to make educational resources available and free to all.
The TES is a consortium of 18 organisations, including 13 higher educational institutions from nine sub-Saharan African centres and three international organisations in the BBC World Service Toast, the Commonwealth of Learning and the Open University of the United Kingdom.
It represents Africa’s largest teacher education research community, stretching across institutions in the Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa.
Rev Prof Obeng said across sub-Saharan Africa, many institutions were incorporating the study units into their teacher education programmes, adding that nearly half a million teachers would receive training on those programmes in the coming years.
He said more countries had expressed their desire and interest to join the consortium and urged others to be part of the partnership.
The Director of the Institute of Education of the UCC, Professor Joseph Kingsley Kweku Aboagye, who chaired the function, said TESSA provided very imaginative ways of training teachers outside the classroom.
Professor Aboagye said the high budgetary resources needed to expand teacher training institutions to admit more trainees, improve quality of teachers and continuous training to upgrade their skills called for the introduction of TESSA training institutions.