After the enactment of the Polytechnic Act in 2001, the Freetown Teachers College presently operates on the principles of the Act. Under the act, the Freetown Teachers College and the Government Technical Institute (GTI) Kissy Dockyard are mandated to form a merger called the Freetown Polytechnic with a main campus at Kossoh Town and a sub campus at Kissy Dockyard. In a bid to form this merger, the two institutions have met and developed modalities in accordance with the act.
Freetown Teachers College was founded on the 9th November, 1964 with the joint support of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology and the Anglican Mission. The College was housed at the Bishop’s Court on Fourah Bay Road to share facilities with the Bishop Johnson Memorial Secondary School under the Principal-ship of Mr. Benjamin King who was succeeded by Mr. U. S. A Kargbo. The operations of the two institutions of different nature and focus posed many constraints on the college. Considering these constraints, the Principal, Mr. U. S. A Kargbo advocated for the relocation of the college on a separate campus. This was approved by Government and the college was to be relocated at Kissy Dockyard near Fisheries Company. This could not materialize under the leadership of Mr. U. S. A Kargbo.
In 1981, the new Principal Dr. D. B. Kargbo and the College Council saw that the land advocated for by the former Principal Mr. U. S. A Kargbo at Kissy Dockyard was too small for a college and appealed to the Ministry of Lands to identify another place. The present site of 100 acres at Kossoh Town was provided for the college. The college was then built on this site by the World Bank under the IDA project.
In 1996, under the headship of Mr. S. P. Sorie, the college was relocated to its new site at Kossoh Town, 19 kilometers away from the heart of the city. It is a non-residential college for both staff and students.
The philosophy behind the establishment of this College in the Western Area was to serve as an in-service college catering for the need of unqualified primary school teachers to acquire certificate in teacher education – Teachers Certificate (TC).
Since its inception up to 1990 the college offered only the T.C programme. In 1990 the Higher Teachers Certificate Primary (HTCP) programme was introduced and in 1996 the Higher Teachers Certificate Secondary (HTCS) was also introduced. A Practicing Primary School was attached to the College on the 16th September 1996 with classes ranging from Nursery I, II and III to classes 1 to 6
