General News of Saturday, 12 January 2019

Source: starrfmonline.com

Government to introduce placement system for Tertiary Institutions

Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Cliff Tagoe Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Cliff Tagoe

The Ministry of Education is planning to introduce a placement system for admission into tertiary institutions in Ghana.

This comes after a 9-member committee chaired by Professor Cliff Tagoe proposed same in the Tertiary Education Policy Document submitted on November 1, 2018, to the Ministry of Education.

The Committee proposed for a Centralized University admissions and Placement Service (CAPS) to replace the current stressful and expensive system of applying to different Universities.

“One proposal currently under contemplation by the Ministry of Education has also incidentally been proposed by this draft Policy document.

“It is the Proposal for a Centralized University admissions and Placement Service (CAPS), which replaces the stressful and rather expensive system of applying to separate Universities in Ghana with a Centralized system, where the applicants list their choices of University on a single platform.

“A Central administrative and technical set up then facilitates the process of placement,” the Committee said.

The Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education Prof Kwesi Yankah revealed this on Friday in an ongoing stakeholder meeting in Koforidua, Eastern Regional Capital.

He said exploratory visits have been made to UK and Nigeria by the Ministry of Education and Vice Chancellors and Registrars to understudy how the system works in the two countries.

He added that a national committee in centralized admissions for Universities to be chaired by Prof. Adow Obeng, former Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Coast currently President of Presbyterian University college will be formally inaugurated on Thursday, January 17, 2019, to facilitate the process.

The ongoing Workshop is being participated by all 10 Vice Chancellors from Traditional Universities, representation from Technical Universities, Private Universities, Principals of Colleges of Education, regulatory bodies, the reform Secretariat of Ministry of Education, University Teachers Association, Tertiary Education Workers Union and other participants totaling 50.

They are deliberating and making inputs on the Tertiary Education Policy document which seeks to bring together all relevant existing documentation, distill relevant government policies, regulatory policies, and legislative instruments and, policy guidelines consistent with national development.

After the meeting, the document will be submitted to the government for further consideration and approval.