HISTORY OF ABETIFI PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Abetifi Presbyterian College of Education is one of the Colleges of Education in Ghana established to offer quality teacher education and training to basic level teachers, and to develop the potentials of individuals in imparting knowledge and skills.

With the implementation of the 1951 Accelerated Development Plan of Education in the then  Gold Coast, the need arose for the establishment of additional training colleges to train more teachers to meet the educational needs of the country at that time.

The College, which was officially opened on 7th February, 1952, with an initial intake of 30 male students was first known as Body Corporate Training College.  The late Rev. H. T. Dako was appointed the first Principal of the College with the Presbyterian Church in control of Management.

On 9th November, 1953, the name of the College was changed to Techiman Training College – Abetifi, (TECHI-COL) because it was originally planned to be sited at Techiman in the then Brong Ahafo Region. Attempts were made to relocate the College to Techiman, but in 1962, a final decision was made to retain the College at Abetifi. The College was therefore renamed Abetifi Training College (ABETICO). In 1995, the name of the College was again changed to Abetifi Presbyterian Training College, but retained its acronym ABETICO, with the Motto “GO FORTH AND SHINE”.

The College which originally started as a Men’s Training College was sited in the Abetifi town in rented buildings. Opanin Addo Bruce and Obosomfo Yaw Tawiah (both deceased) kindly gave out their buildings to house the College. A new site was acquired for the College through the benevolence of the then Nana Adontenhene of Kwahu and the good people of Abetifi. Through the initiative of the citizens of Abetifi under the leadership of Opanyin Kwame Anane, Opanyin Kofi Safo and others, a six-unit classroom block was constructed for the College. It is from that humble beginnings that the College has risen to its present status.

The College initially offered the two-year Teacher’s Cert ‘B’ Course until 1963 when it was replaced with the Certificate ‘A’ 4-year Course. The phasing out of some Teacher Training Colleges in the country during 1973/74 academic year necessitated the relocation of students from Anum and Wiawso Training Colleges to Abetifi (Presbyterian) Training College.  During the 1974/75 academic year, the College admitted for the first time, seventy (70) men to the two-year post-secondary teacher-training course. Among this batch of students was Rev. Herbert Anim Oppong (former Clerk of General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana).

Following a decision to turn the College into a Teachers’ Resource Centre, no more students were admitted into the College during 1975/76 and 1976/77 academic years. The idea was however later abandoned.

Abetifi (Presbyterian) Training College became a co-educational institution during the 1977/78 academic year when the first batch of female students were admitted into the College.

The College also admitted blind students in the 1982/83 academic year. This was followed by the introduction of the 2-year modular teacher-training course in 1984/85. Both courses were however phased out by the end of the 1990/91 academic year.

At the beginning of the 1987/88 academic year as part of the 1987 New Educational Reforms, the College admitted students to start the Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ 3-year Post-Secondary Training Programme, with the first batch passing out in 1991. In September 2004, the College was upgraded to a Diploma Awarding Institution offering the 3-Year Diploma in Basic Education programme. The last batch of the Diploma Programme completed in the 2019/2020 academic year.

With the passage of the Colleges of Education Act, Act 847 by the Parliament of Ghana on 24th March, 2012, Abetifi Presbyterian College of Education (ABETICOE), was fully accredited as a public tertiary institution, mandated to train pre-tertiary teachers. Currently, the College runs the newly introduced 4-year Bachelor of Education Programme in Junior High and Primary Education.

The College is affiliated to the University of Cape Coast and has six academic departments: Languages, Social Sciences, Education Studies, Sciences, Mathematics and ICT and Vocational Studies. The College has over the last 70 years produced over 20,000 trained teachers who are contributing their quota in diverse ways to the development of this country. Some of these teachers have successfully blazed the trail and have become very successful individuals in their own rights and can be found in virtually every facets of the human force of this country and worldwide.