Varsity of Health, Allied Sciences gets substantive Council

The first substantive Governing Council for the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) Ho have been inaugurated in Ho last Wednesday.

The 13-member council replaces the University’s Implementation Committee, which acted as interim Council, since its establishment by an Act of Parliament (ACT 828) in 2011.

The Council which has a-three-year tenure to be renewed once is under the chairmanship of Prof. Kofi Anyidoho of the University of Ghana-Legon, who was also chaired the interim council.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, who inaugurated council, commended the interim Council for the “remarkable progress” made and urged the substantive Council to be guided by provisions in the University’s Act in all its deliberations.

Other members on the Council are Mrs Justice Agnes Dordzie of the Court of Appeal, Togbe Tepre Hodo IV, Legal Practitioner, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, Vice-Chancellor of University of Ghana, Dr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, CEO Danadams Pharmaceuticals Industries and Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, Catholic Health Services.

Others include Prof. Fred Binka, Vice-Chancellor UHAS, Mr Paul Dzandu, Deputy Executive Secretary National Council on Tertiary Education (NCTE), Mr Dzidzeme K. Sedanu-Kwawu, representative of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).

The rest are Mr Emmanuel Adjei, Chief ICT Officer UHAS, Mr Kwabena Sakyi, representative of the Federation of Universities Senior Staff Associations of Ghana (FUSSAG), Dr. Francis Zotor, representative of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), and Mr Daniel Y. Sarfo, representative of the Students Representative Council (SRC).

Education Ministry to Publish approved fees for new Academic Year

Alex Kyeremeh

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Pre-Tertiary Education, Alex Kyeremeh, has announced that, the ministry will soon publish the approved fees for all Public second cycle schools for the 2014/2015 academic year.

The publication which will be carried on all major media platforms, according to the deputy minister is to safeguard parents and guardians from paying unapproved fees, which some school Heads in the country have been charging first year students.  

‘We will be tough on school heads who charge unapproved fees… Education should not be the preserve of a privileged few but affordable to all’ he stated and appealed to all stakeholders including chiefs report any recalcitrant school head for the necessary sanction to be applied. 

Mr. Kyeremeh who is also the MP for Techiman North was speaking at Kpeve in the Volta region, during the commissioning of an ultra-modern office complex for the South Dayi District Education Directorate, constructed at the cost of 800 thousand Ghana cedis with funding from Department for International Development (DFID).

He also noted that, measures are in place to ensure prudent utilization of the recent 156 million dollars World Bank loan facility acquired to build 23 new Senior High Schools, upgrade 125 existing schools and provide scholarship to over 10-thousand poor students from deprived communities in the country.

As parts of the measures, he said an independent fund administrator will be appointed to liaise with communities in selecting eligible beneficiaries.

On the issue of using part of the money to supply sanitary pads for female students, the Deputy Minister explained that government will not buy the pads and distribute, but instead the money will be given to such students to buy what will keep them in school and their eligibility for the next trench will be based on a proof of purchase.

Stop Petty trading during School hours

The deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa has admonished teachers, who engage in side businesses during school hours to desist from such practices.

He expressed worry over how a good number of teachers in schools were engaging in the sales of rechargeable cards, selling of pastries in schools, driving taxis among others, to the detriment of their pupils.

A situation he likened to the proverbial biblical case of serving two masters and cautioned that, “as Christ told us long ago, you can’t serve two masters... You either sell credit cards or be a teacher, you can’t do the two”.

The deputy minister, who was commissioning an ultra-modern office complex for the Ketu North district Education directorate at Dzodze in the Volta region on Friday, said such bad practices coupled with other “serious management issues” were the cause of the fallen standard of education in the region and Ghana as a whole.

According to him, findings and analysis by the Ministry revealed that the inability of directors and managers to supervise and carry out managerial issues has brought about such bad practices including drunkenness and absenteeism.

He disclosed that “teacher absenteeism in the Volta region is the highest, over 45percent as compared to the national average of 27percent”.

He wondered why private basic schools which are bereft of qualified and underpaid teachers are rather doing better than public basic schools which has more qualified and better paid teachers, adding ‘the current situation is unacceptable because the performance of public second cycle and tertiary institutions are much better than the private ones, hence the need for the same results at the basic level.’

Mr. Ablakwa therefore charged education managers not to be “arm chair directors, relying on only paper reports and hearsay accounts” but also go to the field to ensure strict supervision and proper management of schools.