One of the areas that promotes the development of the country is education by ensuring the development of a workforce. The institution of strong educational institutions leads to a society full of enlightened people, which can lead to positive economic progress and social change. Positive social change and associated economic growth are achieved as people apply the skills they learned while in school. Acquiring these skills is encouraged by one ‘teacher’ all of us. For this reason, nations seeking economic and social development must not neglect teachers and their contribution to national development.
Teachers are a major factor in a student's success in learning. Teacher performance often determines not only the quality of education, but the general performance of the students they train. So teachers themselves should get the best education possible, so that they too can help train students in the best possible way. It is well known that teacher quality and teaching quality are among the most important factors in shaping the learning and social development of students. Advanced training will ensure that, to a large extent, teachers are at the highest level, able to manage the classroom and make learning easier. That is why teacher quality is still a matter of concern, even in countries where students regularly score high on international tests, such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In such countries, teacher education is highly valued because of its potential for student success.
The structure of teacher education is constantly changing in almost every country due to the desire to produce teachers who understand the current needs of students or just the need for teachers. These changes are an attempt to ensure that quality teachers are produced and sometimes simply to ensure that the classrooms are not staffed. In the U.S.A., the practice of promoting high-level teachers has become a public issue and, over the past decade or so, has been promoted, essentially, by the measures prescribed by the No Exclusive Child Act (Achieved Teachers of California, 2015). Even in Japan and other Eastern countries where there are more teachers than is needed, and structures have been set up to ensure the production and employment of high quality teachers, issues related to teachers and the quality of teaching are still a concern (Ogawa, Fujii & Ikuo, 2013)). So teacher education is not a joke anywhere. This article is in two parts. It begins with a discussion of the Ghanaian teacher education system and in the second part looks at the determining factors in quality teaching.
2.0 TEACHER EDUCATION
Ghana is deliberately trying to produce high quality teachers in its basic classrooms. As Benneh (2006) points out, Ghana's mission for teacher education is to provide a comprehensive teacher education program by providing initial teacher training and on-the-job training programs, which will produce skilled teachers, who will help improve effective teaching and learning in schools. Ghana's primary school teacher education program was offered only at the Colleges of Education (CoE), and until recently, the University of Education, the University of Cape Town, Central University College and other institutions of higher learning are involved. The biggest difference between the programs offered by another tertiary institution is that while Universities teach, assess and award certificates to their students, the Colleges of Education teach while the University of Cape Coast, through the Institute of Education, assesses and awards certificates. The training programs offered by these institutions are an effort to provide more qualified teachers to teach in schools. National Accreditation Board approves teacher training programs to ensure quality.
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