The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has trained officials of mentor universities and affiliated Colleges of Education on a new Affiliation Quality Assurance Framework designed to strengthen oversight, accountability and the quality of partnerships within Ghana’s tertiary education sector.
The GTEC Affiliation Quality Assurance Framework provides a structured system for monitoring and evaluating the relationship between mentor universities and their affiliated Colleges of Education. It is intended to promote continuous improvement, strengthen academic standards and ensure that affiliation arrangements contribute meaningfully to the delivery of quality teacher education.
Under the framework, participating institutions are required to jointly assess their performance twice in every academic year. The assessments are expected to provide institutions with an opportunity to identify gaps, evaluate progress and implement measures that support the continuous development and improvement of affiliated institutions.
The framework consists of 25 quality indicators, which are assessed using a four-level rating scale. Institutions are required to provide documentary evidence to substantiate their ratings and demonstrate the extent to which the required standards and practices have been achieved.
Institutions that score below 55 per cent in any quality domain will trigger GTEC intervention, while persistent gaps without credible evidence of improvement could result in escalated engagement by the Commission.
The Director-General of GTEC, Professor Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, assured participants that the framework was not designed as a punitive instrument but rather as a mechanism to support institutions to identify challenges and improve their performance.
“This framework is not an instrument of punishment. It is a supportive tool designed to provide clarity, objectivity, and predictability in our reporting processes. It challenges us to be honest with ourselves and self-aware,” he said.
Professor Jinapor added that where institutions are unable to provide evidence of effective practice, the framework would require them to identify priority areas for improvement and develop clear and actionable remediation plans with defined activities and realistic timelines.
“We rise and fall together, and our success is ultimately measured by the quality of the teachers we produce for the nation,” he said.
At the training held in Kumasi, officials were taken through the framework’s five key quality domains: academic oversight; professional practice and school partnerships; assessment moderation and standards; research collaboration and knowledge production; and faculty capacity building.
The framework also places strong emphasis on institutional accountability. Institutions are required to identify corrective actions for areas rated “Developing” or “Absent,” assign responsibility for implementing the interventions and establish clear timelines for completion.
Speaking on the importance of the framework, Professor Samuel Atintonio said it would provide institutions with a structured pathway for continuous improvement in the delivery of teacher education.
He explained that low scores under the framework should be viewed as indicators of areas requiring attention rather than as failures, noting that identified gaps should lead to practical interventions.
“When the indicators are low, it means there is an area to be improved. If a school requires 50 lecturers and there are only 25, it will affect teaching and learning,” he said.
Professor Atintonio added that institutions could address such gaps by developing their human resource capacity, including training additional lecturers or engaging qualified part-time lecturers where necessary.
He said the framework was therefore designed to promote constructive engagement between mentor universities and affiliated Colleges of Education and ultimately improve the quality of teacher education delivered in Ghana.
The implementation of the Affiliation Quality Assurance Framework is expected to strengthen collaboration, promote evidence-based assessment and provide institutions with a clear pathway for addressing identified gaps and sustaining improvements in the quality of tertiary education partnerships.