Govt to resolve problem with Lecturers - JAK

President John Agyekum Kufuor has affirmed the government's commitment and determination to resolve the protracted problem between the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the government over conditions of service of Lecturers and Professors.

He said; "as a mark of our determination to resolve the problem, the Ministry of Education and UTAG have embarked on serious discussions and I remain confident that in the course of this year we will make a significant leap forward which will resolve this problem."

President Kufuor whose address was read on his behalf by Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, Minister of Education, at the 2003 Congregation of University of Ghana, Legon, near Accra, urged the University Students and Management to continue to provide good leadership to help to nurture the spirit of consultation and tolerance in resolving issues.

The President expressed concern about the worrying development of unruly behaviour resulting in many student disturbances and riots, and damaging of public property all over the country.

He, however, commended students of tertiary institutions for resolving to use existing channels of communications to address their grievances. President Kufuor reiterated his assertion that "we can as a nation all take the easy way out of cursing the darkness by complaining about our circumstance and asking for someone else to do something about it.

"As a government, the expectation is that we should be true to say that if each one of us tried our little bit, the nation would be in a much better state than it is now and we would all benefit by it." He, therefore, challenged the universities and other tertiary institutions to come up with innovative measures to help to break up the current mould, stressing "it is obvious that we cannot break out of the cycle if we do things the same way we have been doing in the past."

Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Vice-Chancellor in his address said: "Ghana would lose out in the quest for development if adequate attention is not paid to tertiary education.

"The objective of achieving growth for the Ghanaian economy so that prosperity will abound will elude the country if we do not produce and use high level manpower and technology that are needed to propel the economy."

He said to achieve this objective the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals had developed a comfortable trajectory for full cost recovery over a 10-year period for undergraduate students and over a four-year period for graduate students.

Prof. Asenso-Okyere appealed to Ghanaians to embrace the new fee schedule so that public universities could produce the high quality graduates the country needed for development.

"We do not want a situation where products from the public universities cannot match those from the private universities outside Ghana just because the former lack the needed resources for effective teaching and learning."

He said the university was geared towards the maximisation of its resources through efficient use of what was available and the implementation of income generation activities. In this respect business principles would be infused into the administration and management of the University without losing its academic focus.

The Vice-Chancellor said emphasis would be placed on lowering operational costs and minimising waste in the university. The University graduated 2,249 bachelor's degree students made up 1,500 males and 749 females. Out of the number 201 students made of 127 males and 74 females made the First Class representing 9.61 per cent.

Statistics indicates that 11.25 per cent in 2000/2001 made the first class while this year's the percentage dropped to 9.61 per cent. On the gender perspective the men recorded 62 per cent and women 38 per cent this year whilst in 2000/2001 academic year the male constituted 62.89 per cent with females recording 37.11 per cent.

In terms of Faculties, however female performance in the first class category in the Faculty of Science had been very remarkable. In the 2000/2001 academic years five out of eight First Classes in science were females, this year four out five First Classes in the science were females.

The University awarded student the following certificates, Doctorate of Philosophy, Executive Master of Business Administration, Master of Business Administration, Master of Public Administration, Master of Philosophy, Master of Arts and Master of Public Health and Graduate Diploma in Communication Studies.