Participants at New Year School should pursue recommendations

Accra, Jan. 9, GNA - Participants at the 61st Annual New Year School have been urged to form monitoring teams to follow up on recommendations made at the forum for implementation.

Professor Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, Director of the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, told the participants to take charge of the resolutions made at the school and to ensure that they are implemented by the appropriate institutions.

He was speaking on Friday at the closing ceremony of the school in Accra, which was on the theme: "Sustaining Democratic Governance in Ghana: Issues before the Nation."

For more than 60 years, the school has provided the platform for a cross-section of people to discuss issues of both national and international concern.

Mr Sheriff Nii Otto Dodoo, Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, told the Ghana News Agency that the school had been useful especially in reminding him to be patient and tolerant as he strives to make radical changes in the municipality to better the lot of the people.

He expressed the hope that the 11 members of the assembly sponsored to attend the school would serve as agents of change.

Mr Sherif Dodoo reiterated that the assembly would this year deploy municipal guards to assist the Ghana Police Service, to ease traffic congestion and check washing of cars on roads and other unapproved places.

He said plans were under way to engage the services of a towing company to pull away automobiles parked at road shoulders and other unauthorised locations.

Madam Joyce Afutu who works at the National Commission on Civic Education said the concept of the Annual New Year School was still relevant since it provided government and stakeholders useful information that are crucial for socio-political and economic development.

Mrs Helen Vorodam, Assemblywoman for the Pungu Electoral area at the Kasena Nankana East District Assembly, in the Upper East Region, expressed worry about the delay in the implementation of some of the recommendations made at the new year school, which deepens public perception that the platform is a mere "talk shop".

She called for increased women representation and participation in the democratic governance, which she said was critical for national integration and development.

Mr Kwesi Jonah, Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana, said the school served as an outreach programme to discuss issues of national importance.

"The success of the New Year School should not be measured by what the government had done or what it had failed to do.

"If government even seemingly fails to implement the suggestions made at the school, the fact that the university has opened its doors for outsiders who are not students to come together to discuss issues of national importance is in the right direction," he said.

GNA