No amount of vandalism will save dismissed teacher trainees – UCC

The director of the Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast Prof. Fred Ocansey has stated the institution is unperturbed by pockets of vandalism and social media intimidation being used by students affected by its new policy regulating academic performance in colleges of education in Ghana.

Per the new policy, teacher trainee students who fail a paper after re-sitting an examination is either dismissed or re-enrolled as a first year student.

This new policy has led to the dismissal of hundreds of teacher trainees from the various colleges of education in Ghana. The affected students have expressed displeasure over the directive.

The Mampong Technical College of Education in the Ashanti region has been shut down over fears that the 200 students dismissed were engineering plans to set the institution ablaze.

Prof. Ocansey in a speech delivered on his behalf by Dr. Eric Anane, a faculty member of the Institute of Education of UCC, during the 4th Matriculation ceremony organised by the Methodist College of Education (METHCOE) Akyem Asene-Aboabo, Oda on Saturday, said the new policy has the blessing of the Education Ministry, the council of tertiary education and all other relevant stakeholders of education.

“No amount of social media intimidation or vandalism, though I know you here at METCOE will not do that can save you,” he served notice.

He therefore used the occasion to advise the students to be serious with their books to avert any such unpleasant occurrence.

On his part, Rt. Rev. Kwame Baffour Kyei, Bishop of the Akyem Oda diocese of the Methodist Church and the council chairman of METCOE speaking on behalf of the Chancellor of the school and the presiding bishop of the Methodist Church, Most Rev. Awotwe Pratt assured the students of the continuous support of the Methodist church for the school.

He advised the students to see teaching as a vocation more than a profession so that they can embrace the path they have chosen in life well and to impact positively into the lives of the children they will be teaching after school.

"Students who pass here with the aim of passing through to become teachers and later find other jobs are those who often fail,” he said.