Govt has a policy to assist innovative youth - JAK

Accra April 30, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday reminded Ghanaian youths that government had a policy to assist people who were innovative and wanted to be self-employed. He said higher education was meant to make people more creative, however, graduates coming out of the universities were more dependent and waiting to be employed. President Kufuor, who was addressing graduands from the Islamic University College of Ghana said: "I urge graduands of the Islamic University College to show the world that a new kid has come on the block."
The Islamic University College of Ghana was built by the Ahul Bait Foundation, an Iranian organization.
President Kufuor said creative and innovative youth often had more rewarding results working for themselves as an alternative than being employed by another person.
He said the greatest need of the country was to provide cutting edge skills for the global world in science and technology and called on the Iranians to introduce science into the schools' curriculum. President Kufuor said the government recognized the contribution of religious bodies to the growth of higher education and commended the Muslims for the establishment of the University. The president expressed happiness about the fact that the Islamic University had opened its doors to adherents of other faiths and said it would give room for the students to learn more about each other's beliefs and traditions.
"Besides the expectations of increased access to higher education... this new institution could be one more vehicle for improved community and inter-faith relations," he said
The government policy of public-private sector partnership, he said, was more evidence in education and encouraged the setting up of more private universities.
Following a request by the registrar of the school and a student leader, President Kufuor promised that government would donate a big bus to the school and reminded the students that students in private tertiary education had access to the GETfund loan. Alhaji Gbadamosi, Registrar of the Islamic University College of Ghana, urged state universities to admit students with grades up to aggregate 24 instead of the announced grade 20.
He said students with low grades from the Senior Secondary Schools mostly came out with excellent result at the university. Alhaji Gbadamosi announced that the institution had plans to expand the curriculum to offer courses in the sciences.
He said the school does not only pride itself with certificates but also ensured that students had the best of education.
"We do not believe certification is the best measure to access a students, even though the examination must be credible," he said. Alhaji Gbadamosi advised the students to continue working hard to enable them to achieve greater heights, saying, "acquiring a degree is not the end of education, it should spur you on to achieve greater heights"