| Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
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P. O. Box 27,Akropong-Akuapem , E20004 | |
| Coordinates | 5°58′50″N0°05′26″W / 5.98050°N 0.09046°W /5.98050; -0.09046 |
| Information | |
| Former names |
|
| Type | Co-educationalTeacher-training College |
| Religious affiliation | Reformed Protestant |
| Denomination | Presbyterian |
| Established | 3 July 1848; 177 years ago (1848-07-03) |
| Founder | Basel Mission |
| School district | Akwapim North Municipality |
| Oversight | Ghana Education Service |
| Principal | Dr. Nicholas Apreh Siaw |
| Campus type | Residentialsuburban setting |
ThePresbyterian College of Education, Akropong, is a co-educationalteacher-training college inAkropong in theAkwapim North district of theEastern Region of Ghana.[1][2] It has gone through a series of previous names, including the Presbyterian Training College, the Scottish Mission Teacher Training College, and the Basel Mission Seminary.[3] The college is accredited by theNational Accreditation Board of theMinistry of Education, Ghana as a Degree Research Institution affiliated to theUniversity of Education, Winneba.[4]
The first institution ofhigher education in Ghana, it was founded by theBasel Mission as the Basel Mission Seminary on 3 July 1848 and fondly referred to as the ‘Mother of Our Schools’.[5] The college was the first institution of higher learning to be established to trainteacher-catechists for the eventualPresbyterian Church of the Gold Coast.[6][7] The college is the second oldest higher educational institution in early modernWest Africa afterSierra Leone’sFourah Bay College, founded in 1827.[6] For more than 50 years, it remained the only teacher training institution in the then Gold Coast. It is affiliated to thePresbyterian Church of Ghana.[6][8][9][10] The idea to establish the college was motivated by the ideals of 18th centuryWürttembergPietism inspired by German theologiansPhilipp Spener andAugust Hermann Francke.[6] The Basel Missionaries who originated mainly from Switzerland and Germany established the college.[5] In the course of the one hundred and sixty years of its existence, the college has run different academic programmes and different curricula have been followed, all tailored to suit the demands of the various times.
These ideals emphasised a combination of spirituality with transformation of life through the practicality of Christian teachings.[6] This feature distinguished theBasel Mission fromAnglican andMethodist missionary societies such as theChurch Missionary Society, theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society which were more doctrinal in their approach toevangelism.[6]
Starting with an enrollment figure of 5 students in 1848, the college now has a student population of 1,268. The Presbyterian College of Education launched its 160th anniversary in July 2008. The college has the tradition of celebrating renowned achievements on milestone occasions: Thousands of highly skilled and exceptionally disciplined educationists have passed out of the college, and have contributed immensely to the development of Ghana not only as teachers, but also as economists, politicians, lawyers, bankers, industrialists, journalists and clergymen. The college contributed to the staffing of the University of Ghana when it was established in 1948. Over eighty percent of the Moderators of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (including the present E.P. Moderator) were trained at P.T.C.[5]
The first principal of the college was the Basel missionary, the Rev. Johannes Christian Dieterle.[11] A similar teacher-catechist seminary at Christiansborg, started by the German missionary and philologist,Johannes Zimmermann in 1852, was eventually merged into the Akropong college years later in 1856 to become a single entity.[12][11] In 1864, the Basel missionary and builder,Fritz Ramseyer, who became a captive of theAsante between 1869 and 1874 and pioneered mission work in the Ashanti territories, arrived on theGold Coast for the first time to assist the mission in its structural work, completing the construction of the seminary buildings atAkropong.[13][14][15]
According to the British historian of missions,Andrew Walls, the catechist-teacher education model adopted by the Basel Mission, was an innovation of theChurch Missionary Society pioneered by the Anglican vicar,Henry Venn"as a sort of lower, unordained missionary" -"a subaltern role to facilitate the spread of theGospel."[7] The original curriculum included a five-year course in the methods inpedagogy,education,theology andChristian catechism. In popular culture, the school is dubbed, theMother of our Schools.[6] It was the onlyteacher-training college on theGold Coast for more than half-a-century producing educators for the needs of the community and thePresbyterian Church.[8][9][10] The college now offers diplomas and degrees in education, pedagogy and related subjects. The college participated in theDFID-fundedTransforming Teacher Education and Learning programme, Ghana (T-TEL) programme.[16][17] It is one of theabout 40 public colleges of education in Ghana.[16][18]
It is now a fully-fledged public institution with theGhana Education Service system under the auspices of theGovernment of Ghana. Initially, the plan was to upgrade the college to a university but that idea was abandoned after the church founded thePresbyterian University College in 1998.[6][8][9][10] It is headed and supervised under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Nicholas Apreh Siaw, who is the current principal of the institution.[19]
The curriculum now includes general education requirements tailored to the demands of a developing country. The school was established five years after theBasel Mission started the country's first primary school in 1843. TheBasel Mission, and later thePresbyterian Church of Ghana also led pioneering efforts in establishing hundreds ofprimary andsecondary schools andteacher-training colleges.[6][8][9][10]
The college started with a five-year teacher's certificate course and later run programmes which included the Cert ‘A’ 4-year course, 2-year Cert ‘B’ the 2-year Post ‘B’, 2-year Post-Secondary, 3-year Post Secondary and 2-year Specialist course in Science, Agriculture and Special Education. The college runs a three-year Diploma in Basic Education programme which started in 2004. It is among the fifteen Science designated colleges in the country.
The college is now accredited by the National Accreditation Board of the Ministry of Education, Ghana as a Degree Research Institution affiliated to the University of Education Winneba.
The Presbyterian College of Education has several programmes[20]
| No. | Period | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1848 – 1851 | The Rev. Johann Christian Dieterle |
| 2 | 1852 – 1857 | The Rev. Johann Georg Widmann |
| 3 | 1868 – 1877 | The Rev. Johann Adam Mader |
| 4 | 1878 – 1888 | The Rev. Johannes Mueller |
| 5 | 1889 – 1890 | The Rev. David Eisenschmidt |
| 6 | 1891 – 1905 | The Rev. Bahasar Groh |
| 7 | 1906 – 1909 | The Rev. Wilhelm Jakob Rottmann |
| 8 | 1909 – 1911 | The Rev. Immanuel Bellon |
| 9 | 1912 – 1917 | The Rev. Dr. Gustav Jehle |
| 10 | 1920 – 1926 | The Rev. William G. Murray |
| 11 | 1926 – 1937 | The Rev. William Ferguson |
| 12 | 1937 – 1947 | Mr. Douglas Benzies |
| 13 | 1949 – 1957 | The Rev. J. S. Malloch |
| 14 | 1958 – 1962 | The Rev. Dr. J. Noel Smith |
| 15 | 1963 – 1965 | The Rev. E. A. Asamoa |
| 16 | 1965 – 1971 | The Rev. H. T. Dako |
| 17 | 1971 – 1974 | The Rev. L. S. G. Agyemfra |
| 18 | 1973 – 1978 | The Rev. S. K. Aboa |
| 19 | 1979 – 1987 | The Rev. S. A. Ofosuhene |
| 20 | 1987 – 1993 | Mr. Ofori Boahene |
| 21 | 1994 – 1996 | The Rev. K. Agyin-Birikorang |
| 22 | 1997 – 1999 | The Rev. S. K. Mensah |
| 23 | 1999 – 2010 | Mr. Emmanuel Kingsley Osei |
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