Bolgatanga,-Mr Williams Sebil, the Principal of the Bolgatanga Nurses Training College (BNTC) in the Upper East Region says nurses and midwives on national service have not received their allowances for the past nine months.

 

He said the service personnel across the various health facilities in the Region had being working without any allowances, saying “These are young ones who have just come out of school virtually with nothing.

 

“For nine months, what will they eat to work? If they collapse on the job, whose fault will it be? Even if their allowances will delay at all, by one or two months, they should receive it,” the Principal said.

 

Mr Sebil, said this when he chaired the Regional launch of the International Nurses and Midwives week in Bolgatanga organised by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA).

 

The launch brought together members of the GRNMA across the Region to celebrate on the theme; “Nurses and Midwives, a voice to lead in a vision for transformed healthcare in post COVID-19 world.”

 

The Principal charged leadership of the GRNMA to intervene in the plight of the young nurses and midwives to be motivated and have the energy to contribute to healthcare delivery in the Region.

 

Mr Sebil entreated all nurses and midwives in the Region to work diligently to save lives in spite of the frustrations they might go through in their line of work and commended leadership of the GRNMA in the Region for its efforts at ensuring the welfare of members.

 

He stressed the need for them to continue to organize refresher training workshops for members to update their skills on the job.

 

“Again, the GRNMA, you are encouraged to also engage members of the public, sometimes they don’t know what we do as nurses and midwives. So once awhile we need to engage them to disabuse their minds, and give them hope so that our work will move on well.”

 

Mr Sebil also called for engagement and planning between stakeholders in the healthcare delivery system in the Region for nurses and midwives who had worked for the required number of years would be allowed to pursue other educational courses while at work.

 

He said the Clement Kubindiwo Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) in Navrongo was closer, and with proper planning, nurses and midwives could be allowed to pursue programmes to upgrade themselves as they continued to work.

 

This, he said would not affect service delivery if properly planned, and would motivate and encourage nurses and midwives to stay in the Region and contribute to healthcare delivery.

 

The Principal called on unions within nursing and midwifery professions to unite with the GRNMA for all nurses and midwives.

 

“Let’s go back to the GRNMA, which is the mother union. There is no need having any divergent views. Once we are divided it will be easy to penetrate. Let’s all make it a point to have a united force so that the system will help all of us,” Mr Sebil said.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Cape Coast(C/R),- As the world marks International Youth Day the Member of Parliament (MP) for Essikado-Ketan,Mr Joe Ghartey has noted the need for Ghana and the rest of the world to make Agriculture more attractive to the youth.

 

He called for an urgent call to entice them into agriculture noting that with the involvement of the youth in Agriculture, there would be an increased hope for a more prosperous future for all.

 

Mr Ghartey was addressing students at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to mark this year’s International Youth Day celebration.

 

The Day seeks to highlight the importance of the youth and to recognize the youth as active participants in global development.

 

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Transforming Food Systems”.

 

Mr.Ghartey said the success of such a global effort to ensure food security and sufficiency, would not be achieved without the participation of the youth.”In Ghana as in several countries, this calls for sober reflection because in several countries, agriculture is not too attractive to the youth” though a lucrative venture.

 

The MP said “it is not only in the area of agriculture, but in all other areas, we call upon the youth to go the extra mile”.

 

Mr.Ghartey who is also a former Attorney-General, said the future belongs to the youth and encouraged them to grab the future now.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

 

Sefwi -Wiawso (W/N),- Tropenbos-Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation ( NGO)in collaboration with the Ghana COCOBOD have organized a two-day workshop for Field and Technical Officers of Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED)of COCOBOD on climate change at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western North Region.

 

Mr. Joseph Asante, the Project Officer for Tropenbos-Ghana, said theit was to educate the officers of COCOBOD on climatic changes for them to also educate farmers to enhance sustainable production of cocoa.

 

He said cocoa was a major exportable crop in Ghana and also a tremendous contribution to economic growth of the country.

 

Mr Asante said research had revealed that if care was not taken, Ghana’s cocoa may lose its economic values through activities on lands.

 

“The fast depletion of the forest and the illegal mining activities in the cocoa growing areas like Western North are all threats to cocoa production,” he noted.

 

Mr Kwame Owusu Ansah, Western North Regional Manager of CHED lauded the collaborative efforts of COCOBOD and Tropendos-Ghana in making climate change issues practical in cocoa extension delivery.

 

He promised to educate farmers on the need to desist from using their farmlands for illegal mining activities.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accrac- An Adentan Circuit Court has sentenced Gideon Ahiave, a driver to a fine of GHC 2,400 for knocking down a 74-year old woman at Adentan.

 

Ahiave in default would serve two years imprisonment on the charge of negligently causing harm.

 

On the charge of careless and inconsiderate driving, the court ordered Ahiave to pay a fine of GHC 1,200 or in default serve two months. Sentences will however run concurrently.

 

Ahiave who also failed to show commitment to the female pedestrian, now deceased, was also ordered by the court to pay compensation of GHC 5,000 to the deceased Hannah Odumah’s family by September 30, this year.

 

The deceased’s son recounted in court that Ahiave did not make any commitment towards the deceased even during her burial.

 

The court presided over by Sedinam Balokah ordered that the insurance policy be pursued for the deceased family.

 

Ahiave’s conviction came after he pleaded guilty with explanation to the charges of careless and inconsiderate driving and negligently causing harm.

 

The court in sentencing Ahiave noted that his explanation confirmed his guilt.

 

Inspector Gloria Ansaa Ayim who held brief for Superintendent of Police, Patience Mario said on September 20, last year, at about 1230 hours, Ahiave was the driver in charge of Toyota Corolla taxi with registration number GC 453-18.

 

Inspector Ayim said Ahiave was driving from Adenta direction towards Accra in the bus lane of the N4 highway.

 

Prosecution said Ahiave on reaching a section of the road at Adentan Filling Station bus stop, he failed to exercise due care and attention to other road users and in the process knocked down the female pedestrian, Hannah Odumah in the Zebra crossing who was then crossing the road from the right side to the left side.

 

The Prosecutor said the victim sustained injuries and was rushed to the Legion Hospital and later transferred to Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for further treatment.

 

While receiving treatment, Prosecution said the victim passed and her body was deposited at the Hospital’s morgue and a post mortem was conducted.

 

Prosecution said the Post-mortem conducted by Professor Edwin K. Wiredu, a Pathologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital gave the cause of death as “Fractured cervical with cord complexion and Pedestrian injured collision with moving vehicle”.

 

Inspector Ayim said a case docket was sent to the Attorney General’s Department for advice and it recommended that Ahiave be charged with careless and inconsiderate driving and negligently causing harm to Hannah Odumah, now deceased.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- Mrs Hamida Harrison, a Steering Committee member of the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition (AABill Coalition), has called on the Government to facilitate the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill to hasten Ghana’s journey towards achieving gender equality and sustainable development.

 

“We may hold different views about women’s right, gender equality, and women’s inclusion in public life but what is very clear is that, without inclusion of women in national development there would be no sustainable development,” she said.

 

Mrs Harrison made the call during a training programme in Accra for journalists by the AABill Coalition on the need for an Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) law for Ghana and to solicit their support and advocacy in its passage.

 

It was with support from the Netherlands Embassy through the Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women Project (EROP) being implemented by the SRHR Alliance for Young People, African Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development, and Women in Need.

 

Mrs Harrison said many post-2015 studies and reviews showed that countries that performed poorly in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals did so because of their failure to pay attention to gender equality.

 

She said if Ghana should pay more attention to gender equality the country would be heading towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).

 

The outcome of Ghana’s 2020 elections showed that only 40 women managed to get into the 275-member Parliament, a situation which demonstrated the persistence of gender inequality in Ghana, she said.

 

“Elections in Ghana have been free and fair but not fair to women in general as only 40 out of the 275-member Parliament are women. Leadership must be interested in pushing for a higher number of women into public life and governance in general as women’s low representation negatively affects national development,’’ Mrs Harrison said.

 

She said the Affirmative Action Bill was in line with Article 17(4) of the 1992 Constitution and in compliance with Ghana’s international human rights obligations, with key ones including the SGDs – particularly Goal Five, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration, and the African Union Agenda 2063.

 

Madam Sheila Minkah-Premo, the Convener of the AABill Coalition, said the gendered division of labour in the home, patriarchal and patrimonial systems, negative socio-cultural practices and beliefs, education and religious barriers, and the nature of party politics in Ghana contributed to discrimination against women.

 

She said the Affirmative Action Law was, therefore, needed to remedy the imbalance that existed between men and women in the country and to give both genders equal representation in the public sphere.

 

Madam Minkah-Premo said the Bill sought to promote a progressive increase in the active participation of women in public life from a minimum of 30 per cent to a parity of 50 per cent by 2030 in line with the requirements of the SDGs.

 

She said Ghana was far behind in achieving gender equality with regard to leadership in governance and public and private life, and called on journalists to help make the problem of gender inequality an urgent issue that must be addressed by the Government.

 

Data from Afri-Dev.Info indicate that Rwanda has the highest of 61.3 per cent of women representation in Parliament, Senegal 43 per cent, and Ghana 14. 6 per cent, she said, adding that Ghana could take a cue from these leading countries.

 

The AABill Coalition was set up in September 2019 to enable members of Civil Society interested in seeing the passage of an Affirmative Action Law to work together to achieve that goal.

 

Affirmative Action is the act of supporting or recommending a course of action to remedy an imbalance, recognizing the historical wrongs and making room for remedial action to be undertaken to remedy the wrong.

 

The AABill, therefore, seeks to provide an accountability framework for gender equality and the empowerment of women aimed at providing both the executive and legislative yardstick for measuring the commitment and progress of the country towards achieving gender equality.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

 

Learning generally is not a pleasant experience for most of us. We usually find it very tedious, boring and overall not fun. Why then should it be fun? Imagine a world where learning is made fun and such an experience that that is all we want to do. Looks weird but we sometimes spend time on YouTube watching videos that teach us stuff and we actually enjoy doing it. Can learning be fun? Yes, I think so. But how can it be made fun so that we enjoy it in and out of our classrooms and anywhere we decide to learn a new thing.

Nikasemo believes learning has to be an experience and in creating fun learning experiences, our learning will be fun.

The internet has created vast amount of ways to learn. Web 2.0(2006-2020) brought us a whole host of platforms to learn. Information was made readily available in this age. But the availability of information does not equate people consuming that information. Having an education and learning are two distinct things. Education is usually systematic and things are followed through from a point to another point and usually maps up to a bigger goal.

Learning on the other hand consists of how we consume information. And we do it in a lot of ways. How we experience what we learn plays a great role in how we remember those things and how we even use it.

The means in which learning was being experienced in Web 2.0 was fundamentally through images, videos, texts and quizzes to asses our knowledge. These are the basic ways in which learning is done. Transforming content in books into audio-visuals and quizzes doesn’t fundamentally change the learning experience. It just changes the mode of consumption.

The COVID-19 Global pandemic brought a great focus on Online learning. This also helped us realised how deficient the current learning infrastructure is with regards in creating a great learning experience. Getting and maintaining the attention of children and even adults during online videos lessons was a big problem. Helping us to understand that we cannot just port things done in a classroom and expect them to work as equally on the web. The internet has its own rules regarding to engagement and we believe learning should be created in experiences in order to compete with the kind of engagement the internet also has.

To truly enjoy a learning platform, the experience you get from using it is the only factor that will be considered. With most of the things we do in life, the utility in doing is in the experience you get from it. Learning we believe should be a fun experience. We also believe that this will begin from excited children who are ready to explore possibilities.

Children usually between the ages of 8-13 are in their exploratory ages. They to want to know and use everything they see. It’s great we introduce them to a learning experience they are going to love. Because of the world they grew up in, they lose attention quickly when doing things. New learning experiences should be created for them which aim at engaging them. This approach should be fun and overall rewarding.

At Nikasemo we believe in Gamification, Customization and accountability.

Gamification is key to creating a platform that will make learning very fun and engaging. We engage kids through gamification by giving them points and gems after each learning activity them complete. Gems obtained can be used to purchase virtual boosters which will help them obtain better scores and in turn get more gems. Gems can be used to participate in competitions where top users obtain spins. On the lucky wheel, they can spin and get real gifts.

The platform is also presented as a game to foster a fun learning atmosphere for the children.

We create a customised learning path for each child based on their level of understanding of topics and subtopics of each subject. Basically, every child has a customised curriculum based on their understanding of topics. This helps us to know what they are interested in and are good at it so as to help them forge a future career path towards that.

The coming years will see a major platform shift into more immersive experiences. I mean from phones, where next are we going to? We moved from the Walkman to analogue phones and then smartphones. In this decade, we will move into the realm of science fiction where we see things in a more practical and actual way as we are experiencing it with the help of virtual reality(VR) and augmented reality(AR). These experiences will make learning feel more real as we can get to experience whatever thing we are learning in a very practical and hands-on way. There would also be a way to reward them as they learn and also get real gifts. With the help of cryptocurrency and NFT’s, they can will be able to convert the value ascribed in these things as money to exchange for real-life goods and services. This already sounds amazing right?.

We have to position our children to take hold of the future coming unto us. The coming future looks interesting and we have to put our children in an advantageous position to win. We have to give them hands-on training and make their learning more practical through various learning experiences. We should also put them through activities which will make them think critically and analytically also. These are the children who will transform our country, the world and even colonise the stars.

Nikasemo is building the future of learning by creating learning experiences which will make children and adults love learning and also put them in the position to also practically experience whatever they are learning hence help them create value in the world with what they learn.

This vision cannot be built alone. We need you to get involved and help us build the future of learning together. Thank you!

 

Source: Ghana Web

 

Huawei’s ranking in the global top 500 enterprises has improved to 44th this year, up from 49th in 2020. The privately employee-owned firm, Huawei entered the list for the first time in 2010, ranking 397th, and by 2020, when Huawei leapt from 72nd to 49th place, broke into the top 50 for the first time.

The Fortune Global 500 annual ranking measures the business revenue of the top businesses across industries. The companies generated revenues totaling more than one-third of the world’s GDP and employ 69.7 million people worldwide, however, their total revenue shrank over the past year.

After reaching a record high of $33.3 trillion in the 2020 edition, total revenue for the world’s biggest 500 companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year. It was the first decline in half a decade. The culprit was the global COVID-19 pandemic that slammed huge swathes of the global economy as countries went into lockdown, but which was a boon for technology companies; a sector that not only demonstrated its importance to society but also managed to continue to grow in 2020.

During the recent announcement of Huawei’s first-half results for 2021, during which Huawei’s net margin increased from 9.2% to 9.8% compared to the same period last year. Eric Xu, Huawei’s Rotating Chairman stated: “We’ve set our strategic goals for the next five years. We are confident that our carrier and enterprise businesses will continue to grow steadily.”

The company has benefitted from its diverse business, operating in all regions in the world, in different markets from telecommunications to IT and energy, and from the increase in businesses digitizing across many different industries.

Huawei also benefitted from its large patent portfolio with Jason Ding, head of Huawei’s intellectual property department, saying earlier this year that Huawei expects to rake in around $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in patent and licensing fees between 2019 and 2021. Huawei has one of the largest patent portfolios in the world and invested over 15% of its sales revenue into R&D last year in technologies such as 5G and Cloud.

 

Source: Ghana Web