About Presbyterian College of Education

The Presbyterian College of Education (PCE) formerly the Presbyterian Training College(PTC) is the first and the oldest institution of higher learning in Ghana. It was the second institution of higher learning to be established in the West African Region after Foura Bay College.

The College was established by the Basel Evangelical Society as a Teachers’ Seminary with five pioneer students in Akropong-Akuapem on 3 July, 1848. Rev. Johann Dieterie was the first principal.

The main aim of the seminary was to equip teachers withh sound basic education and the skills and attitudes necessary for living shining exemplary lives. Strict discipline was key in the development of the teachers and this reflected in their life styles.

The pioneers of the PCE were responsible for the expansion of basic schools in the then Gold Coast. The products of those basic schools established by the pioneers also became the products of the first secondary schools established in the country. The College also provided staff for the University College of the Gold Coast, when it was first established in 1948, 100 years after the PCE was established. The PCE has also contributed to the development of various aspects of national life, such as the developlment of Ghanaian Languages, sports, religion and computer training, hence the name “Mother of Our Schools;”

The PCE, the Mother of Our Schools, has since 1848 grown in size and witnessed several physical developments. The student population has increased from five male students to over one thousand male and female students. It is worth noting that the Mother of Our Schools started as a male institution and remained so until it was converted into a co-educational institution with the admission of 17 women in 1958, during the tenure of Rev. Noel Smith, the last white principal of the college.

Among the unique features of the PCE is the training of persons with disability. The college was the first to start the training of the visually-impaired in 1945. This training started when the then principal of the college, Mr. Doughlas Benzies assembled a number of blind children and started teaching them to read and write with the braille (Mr. Doughlas Benzies served as the principal of the college from 1937 to 1947). That initiative marked the beginning of a Special Education Unit at the College in 1945. For now, PCE remains the only College of education which trains both the visually and hearing-impaired.

The PCE, through the missionaries, was the first entity to introduce the cocoa crop to Ghana which till today is Ghana’s major cash crop and foreign exhange earner. The missionaries even successfully planted and processed some beans to beverages long before Tetteh Quarshie brought cocoa from Fernando Po. Tetteh Quarshie worked for one of the missionaries at the College compound and, therefore, knew about Cocoa before he left for the island of Fernando Po and that having seen what he already knew in PCE and for that matter Ghana, it was natural for him to have brought some back on his return. PCE therefore brought Cocoa to Ghana and Tetteh Quarshie commercialized Cocoa in Ghana.

Some other interesting historical facts concerning the college are as follows;
1. One of the pioneers of P.T.C was a Jamaican.
2. P.T.C produced a president for Ghana – His Excellency E. Akuffo Addo, the president of the 2nd Republic was a product of P.T.C
3. Moderators of the Presbyterian church of Ghana from 1918 to 1994 all attended P.T.C
4. Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, a member of the Gold Coast legislative council attended P.T.C
5. The first speaker of Ghana’s parliament, Sir Emmanuel Quist, was a student of P.T.C
6. St. Andrews College and Komenda Training College were nursed at P.T.C. before they were relocated at their present sites.
7. Dr. Ephraim Amu was once a tutor in the college; he was dismissed for preaching with a traditional cloth in the chapel.
8. P.T.C. has also produced traditional rulers like Nana Kwesi Akufo I, Nana Sir Ofori Atta I and Nana Boache Tromo III, who were or are still Paramont Chiefs of
their areas.

In year 2008, 38 publicly-owned Teacher Training Institutions (TTIs) were elevated to tertiary status and re-designated as Colleges of Education (COEs) to offer tertiary programmes. This momentous event gives us the opportunity to innovate and maintain our position as the premier institution for holistic quality teacher education.

Our mission as the co-educational teacher institution that offers diverse programmes(science, mathematics, technical and general education) and emphasizes Christian principles to prepare pre-service teachers to work in regular and special schools reinforced with the values of Inclusiveness, Team Work, Discipline, Professionalism and Spiritual Up-liftment has not changed. Indeed we are poised to pursue our mission and our lofty guiding principles with greater zeal.