The students from OLA College of Education who took part in the Fast-track Transformational Teacher Training programme last year have become Newly Qualified Teachers who have been in charge of their own classrooms for nearly a year now. Last weekend they returned to OLA for their graduation ceremony, which the Sabre team was thrilled to attend and celebrate with them all that they have achieved.

The night before the graduation we held a celebratory dinner for the Newly Qualified Teachers, which was a great opportunity to catch up and find out how they have been getting on in their new schools. Everyone was very excited to be reunited again and it was a night full of good food, a lot of dancing and reminiscing about their time at OLA.

On Saturday morning the Newly Qualified Teachers officially became graduates of OLA College of Education, and they all looked fabulous in their caps and gowns. The theme for the graduation was “Promoting Quality Teacher Education for Transformation in Basic Schools”. The Principal of OLA, Sister Elizabeth Amoako-Arhen, gave a wonderful commencement speech in which she sung Sabre’s praise. Sister Elizabeth explained the positive impact the play based learning is having on teachers and in the classrooms. The Principal also recommended that the programme be scaled up to all of the colleges involved in pre-service training of kindergarten teachers in Ghana. It is excellent to have such strong support from OLA College and the Principal.

What made this support for our work even more exciting was the fact that there were three Ministers present at the ceremony. Central Regional Minister Kwamina Duncan, Senior Minister of the Republic Ing. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, and Minister of State for Tertiary Education Prof. Kwesi Yankah.

The three Ministers later accompanied our Country Director, Jon Beaulieu, and the Principal to the Centre of Excellence Kindergarten, where they were all very impressed with the school building and how the classrooms had been set up inside. The Central Regional Minister was so delighted about what he saw, that he requested to visit the classrooms when they are in session, and we are all looking forward to welcoming him back very soon. The Minister for Tertiary Education was equally excited about what he observed and requested a write up on our work with OLA so that he can brief the Minister of Education on what he observed first hand.

All in all it was a hugely successful day and congratulations again to all of the graduates, with a special congratulations to Sophia Amoah who won the Best Early Childhood Student award!