The Leadership of Conference of Principals of Colleges of Education( PRINCOF) has provided an update on the engagement they had with the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, CETAG on Friday, 13th January 2023 regarding the 2022/2023 academic calendar and other issues about the college fraternity.
The Leadership in their release dated 16th January 2023 conveyed their profound gratitude to PRINCOF and CETAG for their
inputs into the Drafting of the Academic Calendar for the 2022/2023 Academic Year.
Below is the release and the fallouts from the meeting held;
Update On Meeting With PRINCOF On The 2022/2023 Academic Calendar
Academic Calendar
- Leadership of PRINCOF would like to thank both Teams (PRINCOF and CETAG) for their insightful inputs into the Draft Academic Calendar for the 2022/2023 Academic Year
- As noted at the meeting, the modified Calendar shall be forwarded to the Minister through GTEC for approval. Once approved, it shall be circulated to all affiliate universities and Colleges of Education for implementation.
- Colleges shall adopt an extended teaching model to make up for the total number of credits needed for the 14-week tutorials per semester. Each College shall prepare its timetable to ensure that there are extended teaching’ contact hours so that the shortfall in the number of weeks does not affect the total number of contact hours a student must receive in a course of study. For example, if a student offers a course that has 3 contact hours per week, averages that translate into 42 contact hours for the Semester of 14 weeks. If the number of weeks is to be reduced for the semester, that student could do 4 contact hours weekly for 10.5 weeks or 3.5 contact hours weekly for 12 weeks to make the total of 42 contact hours required. So, by adding 30 minutes per week or 1 hour per week to the contact hours for the course, the same number of contact hours for the semester was discovered within a shorter period
- Colleges will assign level-specific teaching loads to tutors. As much as possible, tutors would be assigned to Level specific courses so that if a level is (or levels are) on Break, the Tutors
teaching those Students could rest as well. That, notwithstanding. it was established that Tutors who teach beyond the maximum teaching loads shall be paid Extra teaching Load Allowances as shall be approved by the various Governing Councils. It was clearly stated that this would be a College-Specific’ arrangement/payment and would not be a uniform one for all Staff of all Colleges, as is the practice in Tertiary Institutions. - The meeting did not establish that the 2023/2024 academic calendar shall be modified after the Ministry had secured cabinet approval this year for the Colleges to begin admitting day/non-residential students. Rather, PRINCOF indicated that the model was one of the earlier alternatives proposed but that had policy Implications.
Compensation For All Year-round Work- 2021/2022
- The CETAG team requested an update from PRINCOF on the payment of the compensation.
- Leadership of PRINCOF informed the CETAG Team that those concerns and the requested data had been sent to the Ministry of Education, through GTEC, for consideration.
- It was explained that informal interactions suggest that the employer, in principle, understands the request and the response MAY be favorable.
- PRINCOF did not give a firm assurance that the compensation shall be paid as agreed but rather indicated that Principals were waiting for a letter from GTEC on the modalities for payment (i.e. CoC Only or CoG & IGP) if approved.
CETAG Strike
- The leadership of PRINCOF appealed to CETAG to suspend its strike action since the situation could have further serious consequences on the academic calendar.
- PRINCOF pledged to engage the Ministry of Education and GTEC on the outstanding issues to restore a serene environment on college campuses.
- The CETAG Team, however, indicated that they had been invited by the National Labour Commission for a meeting on Wednesday, 18 January 2023 so they would wait for the outcome of the meeting and thereafter take a decision.
Recommended;
Colleges of Education 2022/2023 Academic Calendar
Reporting Date For Colleges of Education Freshers & Level 200s
Updates about CoE Admissions and Reporting Date for Level 100 students.
Holy Child College of Education Reopening date for Level 200 Students.
Confirmed: End of Semester Examination TimeTable For CoE Level 300 Students.
[JUST IN]: Update On Trainees’ Allowances
Reconsider Calling off strike to pave way for the start of the 2022/2023 Academic year- CETAG told.
CETAG Resumes its Suspended Strike Action Indefinitely