TWJ: Good morning madam and welcome to TTAG Weekly Journal (TWJ).
Madam Sophia: Thank you
TWJ: Could you please tell us more about yourself?
Madam Sophia: I am Sophia Micah, a native of Dixcove in the Western Region of Ghana. I’m a professional teacher. I had my Secondary Education at Archbishop Porter Girls’ Secondary School pursued a 3 Year Cert. A Post Secondary program at Holy Child College, Diploma in Special Education and Management in Living from U.E.W, B.Ed. Psychology from UCC, M.Phil. Educational Administration from UCC, M. Ed. Guidance & Counseling from UCC.
TWJ: For how long have you been a teacher and any experience to share with us?
Madam Sophia: I have been in the teaching profession for 33 years. Teaching is a noble profession that involves impacting lives. It is more than just imparting knowledge and skills to leamers. It involves molding lives. Teachers must be selfless in performing duties to achieve the desired results. The teacher must set examples by modeling the appropriate behavior for learners to emulate. Young teachers should be willing to accept delegated responsibility to be able to learn from experienced teachers. I must also say that mentorship must be taken seriously.
TWJ: For the 33 years you have been a teacher, what was your biggest challenge ever and how did you address it?
Madam Sophia: I cannot mention any particular thing as my biggest challenge but I can recount some challenges and one of them that I will touch on is combining Guidance and Counseling with disciplining. I realized that a lot of students caught in disciplinary issues needed Guidance and Counseling in addition to ensuring they conformed to the school rules. Some took it as being mean to them but a number of them came to realize after they left school that I was rather seeking their interest.
TWJ: St.Teresa’s College of Education has been known for the excellent performance of trainees who passed through. As the Principal, is there any particular secret to that?
Madam Sophia: We stand for excellence so staff and students are committed to work so they work hard to achieve good results. Monitoring and supervision are also paramount. Right from the beginning, students are made to realize their reason for being in school and provided the necessary resources and an environment that will result in effective teaching and learning.
Tutors are always ready to assist the students. We also make use of academic champions, class counselors, and peer mentors. Above all prayer is key.
TWJ: What has been your greatest achievement so far?
Madam Sophia: As an institution, we obtained 15 First class for the 2020 batch of graduands as against 6 First class last year.
TWJ: It is being rumored that Colleges of Education are expected to run a double-track system starting next Academic Year. How prepared is your College, should this
come true?
Madam Sophia: We have not received any such information and we do not work with rumors so I will not comment on that.
TWJ: Trainees in Ghana are calling for the refund of their feeding component of the Trainee’s Allowance for the Second Semester since the major part of the Semester was held online. What is your take on this as a Principal?
Madam Sophia: I do not think that is possible because most colleges had placed an order for items for the semester before the announcement to postpone the reopening was made.
Prices of items have also gone up more than what was budgeted and extra costs had to be incurred to get the online lessons going.
TWJ: We appreciate your time. Before we end, is there any message you would like to put across to trainees?
Madam Sophia: My message to teacher trainees is that they should strive to achieve excellence in their chosen profession. Stay safe and encourage others to also do the same in this period of Covid-19. Thank you.
TWJ: Thank you so much and we appreciate your time. Enjoy the rest of the day.
