Getting Ready for Accreditation: Internal Quality Assurance in Teacher Education Institutions in Ghana

Abstract

The importance of tertiary education cannot be over emphasized. Tertiary institutions provide a nation with varied human capital essential for building and growing the economy of a nation. Human development through the provision of teachers is a valuable role that teacher education tertiary institutions play. The teacher training colleges in Ghana are in the early days of being tertiary institutions. In tertiary institutions where accreditation is required for operation, better education management with emphasis on assuring quality is sine qua non. Quality assurance is pivoted to the continuing operations and success of a tertiary institution. This paper examined the implications of the transition to tertiary status and the urgency and importance of internal evaluation practices in the colleges of education. The paper also addressed internal quality assurance from total quality management and systems thinking perspectives and identified four pillars as anchoring internal quality assurance: creating quality institutional climate, promoting quality assurance at the departmental level, shifting focus from quality assurance for accountability to quality assurance for improvement and engaging in reflective practice and peer review as major tools to facilitate quality assurance.