Day: February 27, 2024

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has launched the Accreditation Management Information System (AMIS), which is a platform, to enable universities to apply for accreditation of programmes without the need to physically visit the Commission’s offices.

AMIS platform is an online solution that will fast-track the accreditation process, provide timely feedback to applicants with real-time updates on the processes and the status of their applications and enhance transparency, accountability, and convenience for all stakeholders.

Eleven tertiary institutions located in the northern part of the country including University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale Technical University, Tamale Community Nursing Training College, Tamale Nurses and Midwives’ Training College, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Bolgatanga Technical University, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Dr Hilla Limann Technical University, Wa Nursing Training College
would be the initial institutions to start accessing the platform.

Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Director-General, GTEC, speaking during the launch in Tamale, said the AMIS platform would revolutionise the tertiary education space in the country.

He said, ‘With this, we hope to streamline the application process making it more efficient and accessible.’

He added that ‘It will help sanitise the tertiary education space, improve efficiency and address the issue of inconsistencies as well as eliminate the manual system, which is not only drudgery but fraught with human inadequacies thus causing discomfort to the universities and the public in general.’

Professor Jinapor said GTEC had plans to decentralise its operations by opening two new offices in Kumasi and Tamale to further enhance the accreditation process for tertiary institutions across the country.

He said this would bring accreditation services closer to institutions and applicants fostering a more responsive and accessible system.

He touched o
n the recent Auditor-General’s report on accreditation of programmes at universities in the country saying, ‘It will interest you to know that in 2022, the Public Accounts Committee report from almost all the public universities was a sad story where most of their programmes were either not accredited or had expired.’

He said, ‘This compelled the GTEC to take tough measures to right all those wrongs and among those tough decisions was the ban on the introduction of new programmes in all public universities from October, 2023 to January, 2024 so that all those public universities could take steps to rectify all such abnormalities within that period to enable them submit new programmes.’

Professor Jinapor said GTEC had established an Accelerated Accreditation Committee to address the delay in accrediting new programmes and expedite the verification and processing of documents.

He said the Commission accredited an average of 400 to 600 programmes every quarter, but the new Committee had successfully accredite
d 1,024 programmes in the last quarter of the year 2023.

He assured of the Commission’s determination to rid the tertiary education space of unregistered programmes and institutions.

Professor Seidu Al-hassan, Vice-Chancellor, UDS, who chaired the launch, said the initiative was long overdue and would make an impact in the educational sector.

He appealed to the Management of GTEC to monitor and ensure that the platform served its purpose.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Professor Peter Mayer, an international economics professor at the University of Applied Sciences, Osnabruck, Germany has called on Universities in the country to increase understanding of foreign countries and cultures to improve enrolment of foreign students.

‘Since not all students want to or cannot be mobile, the university has to provide opportunities for international and intercultural learning at home’, Prof. Mayer stated when he facilitated the ‘2023/2024 National Multiplication Training (NMT) Project’ for Technical Universities and other higher educational institutions at Fiapre, near Sunyani.

Last year, four Senior Faculty members from four Universities won a grant from the German Academic Exchanges Service (DAAD) to host the 2023/2024 NMT Project in the country.

They are Dr. Mrs. Vida Korang of the Catholic University of Ghana (CUG), Dr Sewoenam Chachu, of the University of Ghana, Prof. Anthony Amoah of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) and Prof. Joseph Adjei of th
e Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

The NMT under the ‘Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies’ (DIES) of DAAD sought to promote the development of higher education management in developing countries.

As the world becomes a global village, Prof Mayer indicated the need for universities and other higher educational institutions in Ghana to also deepen understanding of foreign countries and culture, saying it was those universities that would be able to meet societal expectations, actively shape the globalisation process and guarantee their own competitiveness.

The theme for the three-day training, which ended on Friday, was ‘Effective Internationalization Strategies in Technical Universities’ and attended by professors and faculty staff of the various TUs and other higher education institutions in the country.

It exposed the participants to emerging global trends and further provided hands-on training and discussions with peers and experts.

Prof Mayer said univers
ities in the country ought to do more as well to enhance the quality of teaching, learning and research, learn about global academic trends and processes, establish, and expand global networks and enhance their reputation at the global level.

‘The majority of our students will not spend a full semester abroad, so finding ways to expose them to global and intercultural issues is extremely important’, he stated, saying, universities could only fulfil their roles if they saw themselves as an integral part of the international world of ideas.

Universities constantly need to reflect on their specific form of international orientation and need to keep this diversity of motives in mind when working with others, trying to get funds and invest in projects.

Dr Mrs. Vida Korang, a Senior Lecturer at the CUG and the Project Team Lead, later told the Ghana News Agency the overall objective of the training was to promote the development of the TUs and other higher education institutions.

Source: Ghana News Agency

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the fears of critics of Government’s Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy that it will lower education standards have been allayed, saying, the success of the policy has answered its critics.

‘Mr Speaker, Free SHS might be labelled by its detractors as a mere political slogan that must be demonised, but it is, in fact, a transformative programme that has broken myths and liberated minds.

‘I believe the success of the Free SHS has answered its critics, and the arguments about it should cease, and we should simply concentrate on finding ways to improve it,’ he said.

President Akufo-Addo said this during his presentation of the 2024 State of The Nation Address in Parliament.

He said the Government had also been paying equal attention to the lower sectors of education- Kindergarten and Primary School – to give a solid foundation to, and strengthen the Free SHS policy.

President Akufo-Addo said the implementation of various programmes such as Capitation Grant, F
eeding Grants to Special Schools, BECE registration for pupils in public Junior High Schools, among others, had significantly increased access to education at the basic level.

The Free Senior High School policy was introduced in September 2017 as a flagship programme of the government.

The policy aims to take out the element of cost as a barrier to education, thus, every child in Ghana who qualifies for, and is placed in a public Senior High School for his secondary education will have his/her fees absorbed by the government.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, has donated an amount of GHC6,000 to the Esiama Nursing and Midwifery Training College to fix a broken water pump at the College.

The donation was in response to an appeal made by the Students Representative Council (SRC) when Former President John Dramani Mahama, the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), paid a visit to the College during his recent ‘Building Ghana Tour’ in the Western Region.

Former President Mahama directed Mr Buah to ensure that the broken pump was repaired to help resolve the water challenge the students faced.

Mr Buah, speaking during the donation, said the provision of water was a core component of making life comfortable for students, hence his resolve to help fix underlying issues that gave rise to water challenges in the College.

The MP, who is also the Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, encouraged the student nurses to study hard and contribute their quota towards transforming the heal
th sector of the economy.

Madam Cecilia Andoh Boamah, the Principal of the College, commended the MP for helping to restore the broken water pump to make water available to the students.

Ms Rita Acquah, the SRC President, on behalf of her colleagues, expressed gratitude to Mr Buah for the kind gesture and said it would go a long way to help improve the water situation in the College.

Source: Ghana News Agency

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the one-tablet per-student policy at the Senior High School level will be formally launched by March.

The President in his 2024 State of the Nation Address said the initiative would help bridge the gap between disadvantaged and privileged students.

‘Indeed, the one-tablet-per-student policy at the Senior High School level is being rolled out and will formally be launched by me next month. It is a great tool to help bridge the gap between disadvantaged and privileged students.’

The President said a lot of resources had gone into the provision of infrastructure at all levels of the education system.

‘But a lot remains to be done. Many basic schools require more adequate classrooms, and furniture, and the environment in some of these schools can be made more suitable for learning and teaching,’ he said.

He noted that some Senior High Schools, especially the community schools recently absorbed into the formal GES structure, lacked the facilities that the established
schools took for granted.

The President said: ‘We must all express our gratitude to the teachers in such schools who manage, despite the difficulties, to bring out the best in their students and sometimes succeed in achieving great results. They exemplify the best in the Ghanaian and give us hope for the future.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says 17,340 out-of-school children have been reintegrated into mainstream formal schools through the Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP).

‘The goal of GEOP is to provide educational support to seventy-two thousand (72,000) out-of-school children, helping them access complementary education and transition into formal schools,’ he explained.

The President said this during his presentation of the 2024 State of the Nation Address in Parliament.

President Akufo-Addo said the project formed part of the Government’s comprehensive reforms within the education sector to improve learning outcomes and ensure every child was equipped with literacy and numeracy skills.

‘This programme has worked so well and won the GOVTECH PRIZE award in February 2024, at the World Government Summit held in Dubai,’ he added.

The President said the Government had also increased investment in infrastructure for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education at the pre-tertiar
y level.

He said the construction of 10 STEM Schools and 10 STEM Centres had commenced across the country, with seven STEM Model Schools operationalised.

The schools, he noted, had been equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms, dormitories, assembly halls, dining halls and conducive environments to enhance teaching and learning.

The Ministry of Education is set to reintegrate 70,000 out-of-school children in schools through the Ghana Education Outcomes Project together with development partners and service providers.

The GEOP is an additional funding project under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project designed to train, reintegrate and retain out-of-school children in schools.

Source: Ghana News Agency