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30.10.2007 Education

Give Priority To Moral Education In New Reform

30.10.2007 LISTEN
By GNA

Professor Kofi Sraku-Lartey, Principal of the Presbyterian University College, has underscored the need to place emphasises on moral education in the New Education Reform.  He said this would enable education authorities to instil in school children moral and ethical values to guide them into
adulthood.
     
Prof Sraku-Lartey said it was important for the nation to agree on specific moral and ethical values, which should be couched in textbooks to guide children from primary to the senior high school level.
     
He made the call at the fifth matriculation ceremony of the University College in which 165 fresh students were admitted into its Abetifi campus in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region.
     
He said moral and ethical education should be part of the syllabus of the Reform to guide the youth to maintain sound environmental hygiene, love humanity, appreciate communal life and respect authority and work hard.
     
Prof Sraku-Lartey said the Reform failed to place sufficient emphasis on moral and ethical education at the basic and second cycle school levels where the teaching of moral education was left to the discretion of the teacher.
     
He said 123 of the fresh students would be pursuing courses in business administration, 30 of them information and communication technology, 12 of them mathematics.
     
Prof Sraku-Lartey said the University College had introduced innovative programmes such as rural and community development, environmental and natural resource management at the Akuapem Campus to support the national goal of poverty alleviation through judicious use of natural resources.
      
He said a degree in nursing had also commenced at the Asante Akyem campus of the University College at Agogo, to provide the manpower needs of the health sector and programmes in optometry and other medical science courses would be introduced later.
     
In an address read on his behalf, Mr Kwadwo Afram Asiedu, the Eastern Regional Minister, said the role of educational institutions was to help the youth to acquire skills to enable them to assist in the exploitation of natural resources towards national development.
     
He said Government recognised the role of Churches in promoting education to ensure human resource development and said government was committed to training the youth to enable them to work efficiently at various sectors of the economy.
     
Reverend Helbert Oppong, the Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, said since its inception many decades ago, the Church had provided agricultural and medical services and established educational institutions in remote areas. He appealed to the Government to support private universities with funds for research and students with loans to enable them meet educational cost.
     
In an address read on his behalf, Daasebre Akuamoa Boateng II, the Omanhene of the Kwahu Traditional area, commended the people in the area for supporting the University College.  He said the establishment of the educational institution had promoted social and economic activities in the area.
     
Daasebre Boateng advised the students to study hard to enable them to pass their examinations to justify the huge investment being made by their parents and the Church in their education.

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