St. Louis College of Education has held its 8th annual congregation for 274 final year’s students to beef up the shortfall of trained teachers in the basic education in the country at College in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. The theme for the congregation was “Optimising the potentialities of female teachers for the academic and moral advancement of the youth”. Twenty-five deserving graduands were presented with awards for their good academic performances and behaviour. The graduation ceremony coincided with the inauguration of a GH¢115,000 library complex to promote effective teaching and learning at the college. Addressing the graduands, a Council member of the College, Mrs Aba Brew-Hammond, expressed concern about the high rate of vandalism, drug abuse, fraud, homosexuality and other vices which have engulfed our youth and society and therefore, noted that teachers had a major role to play to reverse the shameful acts affecting the society. She said, female teachers served as models to the youth and the society and therefore stressed the need for the teachers to take up good leadership roles in order to inculcate in the children good education practices, such as good morals, discipline, humility and respect. As female teachers, as well as mothers, she said, there was the need for them to adopt open door policies and friendly acts at their work places to enhance effective teaching and learning among the pupils. Mrs Brew-Hammond called on the government and other educational partners to ensure adequate infrastructural development and motivation for teachers at their work place to enable them offer their best. In her welcome address, the Principal of the College, Mr Mary Anane Druyeh said the graduands were the pioneer batch of Early Childhood Education teachers since the induction and direction of Early Childhood Care in the pre-schools, apart from the Early Childhood graduates from the universities. She said the College was offering Sandwich Diploma and other certificate courses to beef up the number of trained teachers in the country. She expressed her appreciation to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for currently constructing a 1,200 seater capacity auditorium and the three–flat staff accommodation facility through the Students Representative Council (SRC), a multi-purpose Volley Ball Court and a 15- seater mini bus, for the College. She said, among the projections of the school, were the construction of a demonstration Early Childhood Centre, equipping tutors with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills for teaching purposes and stocking the library with current reference and reading materials. The Most Rev. Thomas Kwaku Mensah, the Chairman of the College Governing Council urged the graduands to use the knowledge acquired at the college wherever they found themselves to raise the image of the college. He said the mandate of the college was to improve on the development of education through quality training of teachers at the College. Ms Vivian Boakye, was adjudged the overall best student for the year. Present at the graduation ceremony included Mr J. K. Onyinah, Ashanti Regional Director of Education.