The government will establish six new universities in the country by the end of this year, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said.
They are the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Akrodie in the Ahafo Region; the University of Engineering and Agricultural Science at Bunso in the Eastern Region; the University of Health, Agriculture and Life Sciences at Kintampo in the Bono East Region; the University of Mampong in the Ashanti Region; the Local Governance and Leadership University in Accra, and the University for Sports Development.
The move, the minister said, was to increase gross tertiary enrolment ratio of the country.
In a presentation in Accra yesterday on the State of Education in the country, Dr Adutwum said there was a bold attempt by the government that by 2030, the country should be able to hit 40 per cent gross tertiary enrolment ratio.
“The moment you get that, things change in your country and it is seen around the world,” he said.
Forum
The forum for the presentation was attended by a number of personalities, including heads of agencies under the Ministry of Education, heads of schools, directors of education, representatives of the country’s development partners and civil society organisations.
Delivering what he described as an evidence-based presentation at the Accra International Conference Centre, Dr Adutwum said, among other things, the state of education was now stronger than what the government met seven years ago.
He added that the education sector had seen massive investment in infrastructure expansion, access and quality.
The Minister of Education said the construction of some of the universities had been completed and that the bills were in Parliament, and that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education was going to be working on them “so that we can get the act that would establish them”.
“Our nation’s education system is stronger and better than we came to find it seven years ago,” Dr Adutwum said, and that “it is better because the President gave us the free hand to innovate and transform education”.
In the area of technical, vocational, education and training (TVET), for instance, he said there had been great transformation with the provision of equipment to training institutions.
“We may not be able to transform all of them but we have made giant strides, we are on the right path,” the Education Minister said.
Non-guarantor
Dr Adutwum stated that the government within the last seven years introduced the non-guarantor policy to address the challenge of getting a guarantor, which previously existed.
He said an open university would be introduced to enable students to pursue courses online through correspondence to obtain degrees. Dr Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region, said the government had also embarked on a major transformation of education through Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS).
“Next academic year, we are going to have for the first time, an online high school,” the lawmaker said, adding “we need to make sure that we carry everyone along”. Next month, through the Ministry of Education Television, CENDLOS would be launched with a 24/7 programming.
“Very soon, we would be telling our own story, the story of transformation,” he emphasised. Dr Adutwum stated that digitalisation had also found space in education with high school students given tablets and that the distribution was still ongoing.
He said the one student, one tablet initiative was an innovation that had come to stay and was on course. Dr Adutwum said the model junior high schools were also going to be given tablets, adding that “this is the present and future of education in Ghana”.
The textbook under the new high school curriculum, he said, would be uploaded on to the tablets for use by the children.
GATE
Dr Adutwum mentioned the introduction of the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) initiative in the country and that individuals with gifts should be provided an environment that would enable them to blossom.
South Korea and America, he said, had done it and that the results were there for all to see. He said that was going to be one of the last innovations that the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was going to bring into the education system.
SOURCE: GRAPHICONLINE
