3.5 Teacher Training College Tutors

The tutors in the colleges have a variety of qualifications ranging from diploma certificates to graduate level degrees. They can be classified into two broad groups: ‘professional’ graduate tutors and ‘non-professional’ graduate tutors. Table 3.3 summarises the distinctions between the two qualification groups of TTC tutors.

Table 3.3: Teacher Training College Tutor Qualifications

* The entry level qualification for an undergraduate degree course is in fact a university entrance exam which is set at higher than the post-secondary level.

The total number of teaching staff in the academic year 1994/95 was 846, comprising 69 per cent graduates and 31 per cent non-graduates. Table 3.4 shows the distribution of graduate and non-graduate TTC tutors by subject for the academic year for 1994/95.

Table 3.4: Distribution of Tutor Qualification by Subject, 1994/95

Source: Basic Education Sector Assessment School Review, MOE, 1995a

Note: *Social studies tutors consist of those who have studied geography, economics, political science and history, and not necessarily social studies as a discipline

More recent data on the number and qualifications of TTC tutors in 1997/98 reveal an overall increase to 1,044, and a slight increase in the proportion of non-graduate tutors to 33 per cent. Current policy encourages TTC tutors to gain at least a degree-level qualification, but from the statistics detailed above its impact so far has been limited. This is an issue that needs to be investigated further.

Table 3.5: Teacher Training College Tutors by Qualification and Gender, 1997/98

Source: TED/GES Statistics, 1997

The data also show that in 1997 female tutors made up only 21 per cent of the total teaching staff. In the same year, the student population of 20,399, and tutor population of 1,044, resulted in a trainee-tutor ratio of 19.5. As the official trainee-tutor target is 15:1, there is a clear shortage of TTC tutors.

In general, graduate tutors in the TTCs colleges would either have received their training at the University of Cape Coast or the University College of Education of Winneba. Both these universities are teacher training institutions, with the University of Cape Coast mainly training teachers for the second cycle institutions. The University College of Education of Winneba also trains teachers for junior and senior secondary schools. A few of the tutors in the training colleges have no professional teacher training, but hold a bachelor’s degree in science or the arts.

Although most tutors in the training colleges have obtained teaching qualifications at the university level, many have not received training specific to the training of teachers. The training curriculum they would have followed in the universities is not directly related to the curriculum requirements of basic teacher education. Tutors receive on-the-job orientation in terms of the basic teacher education system and its curriculum.

It is necessary to undertake research into what assumptions and perceptions new tutors bring into the training colleges and how these change, if they do, over time. Also, to investigate whether tutors feel their training in the universities, though not specifically geared towards training college teaching, provide them with the necessary knowledge and skills to work in that context, or whether some special emphasis during their training is necessary. For example, students at the University of Cape Coast become quite familiar with the syllabi and curricula of the secondary schools because most of the curriculum studies courses focuses on this context. It could be argued, however, that more attention needs to be given to the curricula of the training colleges at the university level to equip those graduates who will finally work there.