St. Joseph’s College of Education graduates three batches of DBE students.

St. Joseph’s College of Education, Bechem, held its 11th congregation ceremony for Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) graduates of 2018, 2019 and 2020 batches on Friday 28th May 2021 at the College Assembly Hall. Due to COVID-19 and its related issues, the hybrid graduation ceremony saw the in-person convening of the 27 first-class graduates who received various awards and citations, with others joining virtually.

Nine hundred and thirty-seven (937) students graduated. The breakdown is as follows: for the 2018 batch, ten students made first-class honours out of 309, 2019 had eight first-class honours out of 328, while the 2020 batch had nine first-class honours out of 300 graduates. In all, two females out of the 27 had first-class honours.

Distinguished guests included the Council Chair and Bishop of the Goaso Diocese, the Ahafo Regional Minister who was once a Vice-Principal of the College two decades ago, the Municipal Chief Executive, Regional and Municipal Directors of Education, Council Members, Representative of University of Cape Coast (UCC), and Principals from other Colleges of Education were in attendance.

The principal, in his address, charged graduands to work and teach with all their hearts. He said, “Let your lives so shine in the communities you find yourselves… what you do define you.’’ He acknowledged the support of T-TEL and its role in Tutor Professional Development and capacity building and added ‘’we will forever be grateful’’.

Dr Sam Awuku, T-TEL’s key adviser for Leadership for Learning and Institutional Development, delivered a keynote address on the theme ‘’Ghana, a learning nation’’ the role of Colleges of Education. He stated T-TEL would continue to work with Colleges of Education to transform Ghana into a learning nation. To the graduands, he said “the job of developing teachers is a calling and being a teacher is a high calling in my opinion, and no country can develop without the work of teachers. He intimated that “Ghana has seen a real focus on teacher development and the work of the teacher and therefore not surprising that the Education Ministry in its Strategic Plan (2018 – 2030) has visioned to make Ghana a learning nation.”

A learning nation, according to him, ‘’creates the enabling environment for learning and facilitates the learning of its citizens and continuously transforms itself’’. Citizens of learning nations are lifelong learners. He described the importance of quality education and added that quality education is dependent on good and great teachers. He distinguished good teachers as those who ‘’equip their learners with subject knowledge and skills to enable them pass exams whilst great teachers inspire their learners to see beyond their present potentials and to see impossibility as a possibility’’.  

He further admonished the graduating class of 2018, 2019 and 2020 “to be creative, problem solvers, and critical thinkers to contribute to Ghana’s development. No nation can develop by just producing individuals with technical skills only. Ghana needs individuals who are inspired by the principle of truth, integrity, honesty, and selflessness”. 

He ended his address by advising the graduands to be learning ambassadors and appealed to them to , ‘’Go ye as the teacher, the learning nation ambassador, the lifelong learner, the agent of change that St. Joseph’s college has made you into’’.

The Regional Minister was the Guest of Honour. In a brief address, he appealed to the graduands to be good ambassadors and fight the social and moral deviation caused by the crave for money.