Combine Moral Discipline With Academic Work — Prof. Anamuah-Mensah

The immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University College of Education, Winneba, Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, has challenged educational institutions in the country to combine moral discipline with academic work to enable the country to produce brilliant and morally upright graduates.

Expressing concern about the level of moral decline in the country, he said educational institutions across the country, were only “turning out brilliant and highly intelligent people who are morally and spiritually bankrupt".

He said, " The older universities are overemphasising the inviolability of the disciplines to the neglect of the total development of the person. Leaving the spiritual out of education, results in mal-education".

Prof. Anamuah-Mensah pointed out that notwithstanding the mushrooming of churches throughout Ghana, "the country was experiencing a spiritual shut down”.

Prof. Anamuah-Mensah was addressing freshmen and women at the Christian Service University College (CSUC) during their matriculation ceremony in Kumasi at the weekend, where 762 students were matriculated to offer degree programmes in Theology, Business Administration, Computer Science and Communication.

The Department of Communication, a newly introduced degree programme by the CSUC, admitted 44 students who constituted the pioneering group.

The CSUC has a total student population of 1584 with 45 per cent of them being females.

Prof. Anamuah- Mensah challenged the students to be adequately prepared to enable them to "reverse the trend of immorality, indiscipline, selfishness and the drug-dependency syndrome affecting the people of this country"

He noted with concern the insatiable crave for material wealth among a section of the public, sexual immorality, homosexuality, corruption, drug abuse and moral misconduct, among others, and noted that such traits were not only undermining sustainable socio-economic development, but were also succeeding in "tearing the very fabric of the society apart".

Prof. Anamuah –Mensah said to prevent the youth from becoming liabilities to their immediate families, communities and the state, educational institutions in the country should shape their intellectual, moral, emotional and spiritual experiences in a more profound way .

" We see the hope of tomorrow in the youth of today.

We can be proud that the youth will be better educated, more committed, more passionate driven by conscience than any generation in our society.

But we need to prepare them in an institution like CSUC to set them off to greater achievement", he noted.

Lamenting on the predicament that seems to be engulfing the country, Prof. Anamuah- Mensah noted that the love for power and insatiable wealth had also enticed a section of the youth who have the potential of assuming the leadership of the country to fully embrace occultism.

"We have thus found ourselves rich in material things, but ragged in spirit.

This is a sad state of affairs for the country God has given us, and these are the things that divide us, that make us hate, insult and fight each other".

In his address, the President of the CSUC, Prof. Emmanuel Frempong advised the students to apply themselves diligently to enable them excel in all their endeavours.

" You must seek to excel not only in your academic work, but in your moral and spiritual growth and development", he advised, adding that, "you are expected to hold the core values of the university such as integrity, hard work, good stewardship of resources, time management, mentoring and leadership by example, as well as love and fellowship and student care".

Story by George Ernest Asare.