Participants register for 58th New Year School

Accra, Jan. 02, GNA - Registration for participation in the 58th Annual New Year School is underway at the Jones Quartey Building, University of Ghana, Legon. So far more than 200 participants out of the 500 expected participants have registered for the School, which officially opens on Wednesday, January 3.

Preparations for the School have been completed and officials were assisting participants with registration formalities and others directed to their hostels. The week-long extra mural School, organized by the Institute of Adult Education (IAE), University of Ghana, would reflect on Ghana's 50 years of nationhood on the theme: "Ghana at 50: Achievements, Challenges and the Future". This year, the School, which had over the past 57 years dispassionately discussed matters of national and international importance would examine key national concerns since independence, the choices that were made and their consequences in open sessions, small group meetings and in informal interactions.

"Discussions at the School would not dwell on the past only. It is out belief that analysis of our actions in the past 50 years would provide directions for the future," Mr Reuben Aggor, Acting Director of the Institute told GNA. President John Agyekum Kufour is expected to officially open the School at the Great Hall of the University. The opening session would be followed by the delivery of the keynote address by Nana (Dr) S.K. B. Asante, Immediate Past President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Omanhene of Asante-Asokore Traditional Area.

Activities to which both registered and non-registered participants would participate are lectures, discussions and symposia on "The State of the National Economy 50 Years after Independence: What next?" Other topics would be: "Governance Over the Past Five Decades: Views of the Younger Generation", "Education in the Past 50 Years: Matters of Concern and Our Values of the Past 50 Years", "Adult Education and National Development" and "Industrial Relations in Ghana since 1957: Emerging Issues." Mr Ishmael Parry, Acting Director of the School told GNA that the choice of English language as means of instruction, on which some Parliamentarians had expressed concern as a limiting factor to participate was based on the fact that English was used for official business in Ghana. However, he accepted the use of local languages as medium of communication as pertained in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to enhance participation, but pointed out that it would create interpretation problems considering the number of local languages spoken by participants. Mr Parry recalled that a participant, who did not understand English, brought an interpreter at his own cost and participants were at liberty to bring their interpreters.