The government will from next month commence with the construction of a 3-storey 300-bed capacity Hostel Block in all the 45 Public Colleges of Education across the country.
Estimated at GH¢485 million, the project will be funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and expected to be completed within 15 months after commencement.
Briefing the media on Friday in Accra, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said the project was an initiative of the government through the Ministry of Education (MOE) and its agency Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
He explained that it was aimed at resolving accommodation challenges in the colleges of education.
Dr Adutwum said the projects were to be executed by 45 local contractors and would be completed and handed over to the colleges for use by August 2023.
The Minister was optimistic that with the measures put in place so far, the contractors would be able to execute the project on schedule.
He added that to ensure timely delivery, the GTEC and MOE were in discussions with GETFund to make available an advance mobilisation loan of at least 10 per cent of the contract sum to each of the contractors to enable them to move to site as soon as possible.
The Education Minister hinted that all the construction works were expected to generate over 2500 direct and indirect temporary employment for the Ghanaian youth.
Again, he announced that upon completion, the project stood the chance of improving effective teaching and learning in the colleges which train a larger chunk of teachers for the pre-tertiary sector of education in the country which would in the long run lead to improvement in the quality of education in the country.
As part of the government’s Education Reforms, all public Colleges of Education have been converted into 4-year Bachelor of Education degree awarding institutions.
This has necessitated the need to expand facilities to accommodate the increasing number of students and also improve teaching and learning.
It is based on this that the government through the Ministry of Education and its agencies; the Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) agreed to undertake the construction of the hostels.
