New Year School recommendations ....

Accra, Jan. 7, GNA - The government has pledged its preparedness to seriously consider recommendations of the on-going 59th New Year School to promote the delivery of quality tertiary education in Ghana in view of the current challenges of access and funding.
Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Education, Science and Sports on Monday said the corresponding expansion in access to tertiary education through the new education reforms required massive funding to expand the tertiary institutions to be able to absorb and meet the need for the increasing number of students.
Giving a lecture on; "The Current Education Reform: Implications for Tertiary Education" at the New Year School at the University of Ghana on Monday, he said the most serious challenge of the new education reform was funding and sustainability. "I therefore challenge participants at this New Year School to come up with recommendations that would help devise strategies to address the diverse challenges, especially sustainable funding arrangements at the tertiary level."
Professor Fobih said there was the need to develop a comprehensive framework for financing tertiary education that would ensure sustainable funding to meet the ever-expanding need for providing quality tertiary education.
"This framework should include issues like scholarships for brilliant but needy students and funds for research and incentives for innovation and creativity," he said.
Professor Fobih said the objective of the new education reforms was to address the question of access to education and that the policy interventions at the basic level such as the introduction of the capitation grant and school feeding programme were aimed at ensuring that all children of school going age go to school.
He said the government was totally committed to fulfilling its responsibility to provide the requisite academic and physical infrastructure but the collaboration of all stakeholders including industry, commerce, parents and communities was necessary to raise it to a level to be appreciated by all.
Professor Fobih said another implication of the new education reform is the provision of a regulatory framework to promote the participation of the private sector in the provision of tertiary education.
He said the National Accreditation Board was established to ensure that the proper regulatory processes were put in place to safeguard public and national interest in terms of provision of quality tertiary education. He said the traditional, older tertiary institutions have a responsibility to mentor and provide guidance to the emerging private institutions which were affiliated to them to ensure that standards were maintained.
The Minister said another serious implication of the reforms was the renewed emphasis on vocational and technical education which required the acquisition machinery and equipment to foster practical training required for the job market worldwide.
He said an education bill was in Parliament and would soon be passed to ensure that political parties would adhere to educational reforms without having to change them to draw the country back. Highlights of the White Paper on the Education Reform include 11-year compulsory universal basic education and emphasis on Technical and Vocational and Agricultural education.
Professor Kwesi Yankah, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana said the Distance Learning and Virtual University system would help ensure that students who did not get admission into the universities had university outside the campus.
Madam Kate Ameku, Assembly member of the Kwahu North District Assembly said the participants represented all the 10 regions hence their recommendations would reflect the needs of the various groups of the public which in turn would benefit the government in its policy formulation.