Vice Chancellor for waiver of USAT fees for Universities

Winneba (C/R), May 10, GNA - The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah on Saturday appealed to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to waive the Very Small Aperture Technology (VSAT) licensing fees for the universities.

He also appealed to the Ministry to strike a deal with Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the country to give universities an educational rate for internet access.

According to Prof Anamuah-Mensah, this if done will help strengthen the provision, expansion and utilisation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the universities as well as help put local content on the internet.

Prof. Anamuah-Mensah said this in address he read at the inauguration of a multi-million cedis ICT centre at the university at Winneba.

He said that even though the deployment of VSAT system to access education information on the internet is useful and necessary and also makes the students and staff happy, the system is expensive.

The Vice-Chancellor said that the VSAT licensing fees demanded by the National Communication Authority (NCA) and the internet access fees are very high, making access to educational information very expensive for the universities.

Internet operators in Winneba charge between 5,000 cedis and 6,000 cedis per hour and most students spent more hours, to look for information.

He said that the UEW needs the support of government and NGOs to enable it translate its strategic ICT plan into reality, ICT education is key to the accelerated socio-economic development of he nation. Prof. Anamuah-Mensah noted that support for the UEW ICT plan would enable the university to train teachers to teach ICT in pre-university institutions in the country.