DON'T DEFER COURSE FOR CHILDBIRTH (PAGE 11)

Story: Emmanuel Modey, Hohoe

THE Director of the Teacher Training Division of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MoESS), Mr Victor Kofi Mantey, has expressed concern about the rate at which female teachers pursuing three-year diploma courses defer their programmes.
The situation, he noted, was because the teachers deferred their courses during pregnancy and childbirth whilst still receiving their allowances.
Mr Mantey has, therefore, advised them to endeavour to complete their courses before they decide to give birth.
Speaking at the maiden graduation of the newly trained diploma students of St. Theresa Training College at Hohoe, he said the problem could be avoided because the trainees were taught in their curriculum how to avoid pregnancy.
He pleaded with them to try and complete their course of study first and then have the number of children they could conveniently cater for.
Mr Mantey explained that the diploma programme was instituted to raise the status of teachers to correspond with what was pertaining in the West African sub-region.
In all 144 students passed out with 19 having second class. No one had a first class.
The Hohoe District Chief Executive, Mr John Peter Amewu, congratulated the graduates on successfully completing their course.
He said it was not easy to train as a teacher and advised that once they had been trained to teach they should consider it as the beginning of a great career.
"A teacher by all status is a role model in the society and his or her pronouncements and actions could help shape society," he stated.
The acting Principal of the college, Mrs Juliet Kumah, said the college, established in 1961, was the best among the eight female training colleges in the country, since they recorded the best result in the newly introduced Diploma in Basic Education course.
She appealed for the provision of more bungalows for the staff and cement to complete work on a fence project to check encroachment.
Mr Amewu immediately replied by promising them 100 bags of cement.
The Bishop of the Ho Diocese of the Catholic Church, Rt. Rev Francis Anane Lodonu, also congratulated the graduates and urged them to spread the knowledge they had acquired.
"You have become the salt of the earth and the light of the world, so that the world may be sanctified through you," he added.