Educ. Policy Discriminate Against Private Varsities

Government's policy on funding tertiary education is discriminatory against Ghanaian students in private universities, the chairman of the Presbyterian University College(CUC) Council, Sam Oku-dzeto has said.

He said “while students in public universities receive free tuition and have access to teaching and learning facilities which have been established with funds from the GETFund, those in private universities are denied such facilities and have to pay for their tuition.”

Mr. Okudzeto, therefore called for adequate support for the private universities since they were producing equal human resource needed for the nation as well as going into commercial agriculture to increase the country's food requirement.

He was addressing the second congregation of the Kwahu campus of the  university  at Abetifi in the Eastern Region last Saturday.

In all, 155 students graduated in Bachelor of Science, Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Information and Communications Technology.

President John Agyekum Kufuor in an address read on his behalf, said that with the rapid increase in population, the government alone could not continue to be the major employer and it was therefore, essential for entrepreneurial skills to be introduced at all sectors of the educational system.

He called for the educational system to be used to consolidate the young democracy of the country by introducing the pupils in basic schools and students in second cycle institutions to the principles of democracy through their syllabi.

He said the present educational system placed less emphasis on creativity and practical training which were essential tools for the maintenance of a manufacturing economy.

President Kufuor urged all managers of the various educational institutions to change their system and expose the pupils and students to techniques that would make them innovative, analytical and creative.

The Principal of the PUC, Professor Kofi Sraku-Lartey said PUC which was established five years ago at Abetifi have two other campuses at Akropong-Akuapim and Agogo with faculties for Business Administration, Health and Medical Science respectively.

He commended the graduates for their performance and urged them to impact the knowledge acquired effectively wherever they might find themselves to enhance the nation's development.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. (Dr) Frimpong-Manso, said the church established the university to provide tertiary education for the over 400,000 pupils and students in the various church institutions to complement government efforts in training the country's human resource.

He gave the assurance that, the church would support the university college to produce a holistic individuals imbued with Christian principles and values who could positively effect and sustain change in the technological global world.