TTAG gives update on CoE 300-bed hostel facilities construction

The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) following the ongoing construction of a 300-bed hostel facility in all 46 public Colleges of Education to help solve accommodation challenges has said the work is progressing smoothly.

Dear trainees, “three-story hostel facility to help solve the transition system in the Colleges of Education, has begun & it’s ongoing within the forty-six {46} colleges across the country,” the Teachers Association said in a social media post.

TTAG’s comment comes after the Ministry of Education (MoE) mid this academic year pledged to build a state-of-the-art hostel facility in all the government Colleges of Education (CoE) across the country from June 2022.

In a statement copied to AcademicWeek, a spokesman for the Ministry said the move forms part of the government education reforms to expand facilities to accommodate the increased number of students in the Colleges of Education.

“As part of the government’s Education Reforms, all public Colleges of Education (CoE) in the country have been converted/upgraded into 4-year Bachelor of Education degree-awarding institutions

This has necessitated the need to expand facilities to accommodate the increased number of students and improve teaching and learning as well,” deputy Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Yaw Opoku Mensah stated.

The building of the facilities, he said is a kind courtesy of the Akufo-Addo-led government through the Ministry of Education and its agencies Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund)

The buildings he said will cost the central government Ghc485 million with local contractors expected to execute the projects. The projects Yaw indicated are expected to generate over 2500 direct and indirect jobs for the economy.

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum commenting on the construction of the Colleges of Education hostel blocks early this year at a press briefing said the move follows a decision to move teacher education to four years.

“We made teacher education four years, therefore there is a need to add more facilities, a 400-bed hostel with excellent furniture,” the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe Constituency said at a press briefing.