Members of the University of Education, Winneba Governing Board being sworn into office. Picture: EDNA SALVO-KOTEY
The government has made tertiary education in its second term one of two pillars of its strategic transformation agenda, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said.
He has, therefore, charged governing councils of the various institutions to focus and strengthen their core duties to ensure that they produced the requisite human resource to help drive the agenda for the accelerated development of the country.
Dr Adutwum said this yesterday when he inaugurated the governing councils of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Accra.
Their inauguration brings to nine, the number of governing councils of universities that have been inaugurated, leaving six more to be done.
UEW Council
The governing council of the UEW is chaired by the Gyasehene of Aseseeso-Akuapem, Nana Ofori Ansah I. The members include Ms Osei Bonsu, Mrs Abena A. Antwi and Mr Alex Kobina Braye Bonney, all government nominees.
The rest are the Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Fr Professor Anthony Afful-Broni; a representative of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Council, Very Rev. Ama Afo Blay; the Director-General, GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa; a representative of professional teacher organisations, Mr Eric Kofi Agbe Carbonu; a representative of Convocation, Dr (Mrs) Beth Offei-Awuku, and Mr Eric Sekyi Nketiah, a representative of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU); Ms Theresa Ackon, Mr Reuben Brother Dorkenoo, Students’ Representative Council (SRC); Mr Enoch Ansah, Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG), and the Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof. Mohammed Salifu.
There are other three places to be filled by one alumni member and two other members from convocation.
UCC
The UCC council is chaired by Prof. Obeng Mireku, with the members being Most Rev. Titus Awotwi-Pratt, Dr Samuel Awuku and Prof. Maame Adowa Gyekye-Jandoh, all government nominees.
Others are Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong; Convocation, Dr Justice P. Deikumah; University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Dr Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi, TEWU; Mr Samuel Williams, Mr Christopher Eduako Dadson, SRC; Mr Eric Adjei, GRASAG; Dr Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, GTEC.
Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) Madam Cecilia Adzo Wofesor, alumni member, Mr Kobina Sam Bentsi-Enchill, and two other members.
Interest
Dr Adutwum, who took the members through the oaths of office and secrecy, said the president’s great agenda for the transformation of the country was education and that could be seen in his work on the free senior high school programme and urged the council members to be interested in the instructional and curriculum aspects of their respective institutions.
He said although they might be saddled with issues such as petitions from professors, governance and infrastructure, with no space left for them to be engrossed in the teaching and learning process, they must also look at the quality the universities produced and other issues.
“You should be interested in the quality of the graduates that are coming from your institutions. If they are not getting jobs, it should be corporate responsibility looking at what can be done to turn out the best graduates that any university can offer,” he said.
Dr Adutwum said the country’s human capital index of 44 per cent was not good enough and that the institutions should help to spearhead the effort to improve on that.
The chairpersons of the two councils, Nana Ansah and Prof. Obeng, thanked the President for giving them the opportunity to serve the country.