Professor Frederick Occansey, Director, Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has praised the government for the bold decision to elevate the colleges of education to the university status.

He said the upgrading of the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) to the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) degree, from October this year, would help equip teachers with the requisite skills and knowledge to improve performance and promote quality at the basic education level.

Prof. Occansey was speaking at the second graduation ceremony of the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTDBE) at the St. Monica’s College of Education at Asante Mampong.

He said the Institute of Education was currently developing a new curriculum that would be used for the training of students in all the 46 public colleges which were going to be converted into universities.

Mrs Christina Sobotie, Principal of St. Monica’s college advised the graduates to exhibit the quality training they had acquired in the classroom and aspire to be all round disciplined teachers.

She urged them not to be content with their current certification but embark on continuous professional development and enrol on the new Bachelor of Education programme in order to be abreast with emerging trends in education.

Mrs Sobotie said inadequate academic staff as one of the major challenges facing the College.

She appealed for additional staff to ease pressure on the existing ones and also improve the quality of education delivery in the school.