According to the church history, in 1843, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana established the first primary school in the country. This sparked off a series of bold, visionary and pioneering initiatives in the development of education in the country. Five years later, it established the Presbyterian Training College (PTC) at Akropong, the second higher educational institution in West Africa after Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone. Since those early beginnings, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has established and managed, in partnership with the Government of Ghana , hundreds of primary schools, many high schools and colleges of education.
These schools and colleges, guided by the proverbial Presbyterian discipline, set very high moral as well as educational standards, which have characterized the Presbyterian Education tradition. Also in partnership with government, the church has provided and managed Professional, Technical and Vocational Institutions in a wide range of fields including Agriculture and Health. Specifically, the church has established 1,886 schools comprising 490 Nurseries, 973 Primary Schools, 388 Junior High Schools, five (5) Vocational Institutes, five (5) Colleges of Education and 25 Senior High Schools.
With the establishment of the Presbyterian Training College (PTC), it was hoped that, like the Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, it might one day be upgraded to a university. However, after several years, it was not until 1996 that the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at that time took the bold decision to initiate steps into establishing a university. The body charged with pushing forward this initiative, the Presbyterian University Implementation Committee, was formally established in 1998. It is through these efforts and the determination of the Church that the Presbyterian University College, Ghana has come into being.
