The Tumu College Of Education SRC Public Relations Officer, Zangu Jonathan has added his voice to the brouhaha ongoing at the colleges of education in the country.
In a conversation with Coleman Publications, he registered his displeasure with the government and some affiliate universities concerning their craving for trainees to write an end-of-semester examination.
“About the current happenings, the academic life of Teacher Trainees is at stake, as we are unwilling but compellingly zooming into this unpleasant examination. Summative assessment is very essential since it serves as the basis for decisions to be made about students. Contrary, this form of assessment ought not to be conducted amidst a distraction of the academic calendar”, he posited.
“An ongoing strike that has been spaced out for over four weeks has distorted academic activities in colleges of education which is worth considering”, he added.
Moreover, Zangu Jonathan stated though some trainees are compelled to write the end-of-semester examination, they do not want any university to fail anyone.
“We shall write as we are compelled to, but what we won’t do is to write a re-sit in any course for this semester”, he articulated.
He, therefore, asked the following question about the ‘by-force’ end-of-semester examination by these affiliate universities.
“Our questions now are;
- Who are the invigilators?
- How will the Universities get Our CAs?
- Will the results be graded without CA?
- To the best of my knowledge, all assessment officers are equally on strike and will not be available to forward CA from their various institutions to the Affiliated Universities. So how will that be handled?”
“As a matter of fact, most teachers weren’t able to conduct enough formative assessments and talk less about forging CA for Trainees. In as much as the government and the various mentoring universities are concerned about Trainees, they should also be concerned about the Tutors of these Trainees (CETAG)”, he continued.
How can one say he “cares” about a child, while he holds grudges against the parents of the child? Literally impossible! Zangu asserted.
Zangu Jonathan concluded by urging the mentoring universities to channel their efforts toward the government to sort out CETAG than force innocent trainees to write papers they are not prepared for.
“Instead of mentoring universities to put efforts into compelling Trainees to write exams, they should divert such efforts to the government, to make sure the needs of CETAG are met for academic activities to resume smoothly. Ghana is for all. Let not the privileged undermine the less privileged and the powerful brutalize the powerless. Is about time TEACHERS regain the respect and cognizance needed” he concluded