TRAIN STUDENTS TO BE INNOVATIVE (PAGE 24)

PRESIDENT John Agyekum Kufuor has called on managers of the country’s educational system to develop practical training courses that would make pupils and students innovative, analytical and creative.
This, he stated, would make it possible for educational institutions to produce the required knowledgeable and skilled personnel for the country’s socio-economic development.
“Although the present educational system puts much emphasis on creativity and practical training, which are essential for maintenance of a manufacturing economy, pupils and students are not trained to be creative but mainly cram information for the sake of passing examinations and this must change,” the President stated.
President Kufuor made the call in a speech read on his behalf by the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kwahu East, Mr Raymond Osafo Gyan, at the second congregation of the Presbyterian University College (PUC) at Abetifi on Saturday.
In all, 105 students, who pursued various degree programmes, were awarded certificates.
The President said the role of education, especially tertiary education, in nation building had become more important than ever before, noting that the country could not obtain the full benefits of education without proper planning.
He therefore proposed that the future direction of the country’s educational development should help address the various challenges facing it.
According to him, areas of specialisation and the content of the syllabi must be re-organised to produce students with the right skills to help the country to move away from primary economy to that of industrialisation.
He added that with the increasing population, the government alone could not continue to be a major employer, a situation which he said called for the introduction of essential entrepreneurial skills in all sectors of the educational system.
“If such skills are carefully imparted at all levels of the educational system, even those who enter into vocations after junior high school by apprenticeship training can be self-employed and be in a position to create jobs and wealth for the country,” he said.
President Kufuor also voiced his concern about the fact that the current educational system did not make it possible for students to adhere to the indigenous culture but rather turned them into aliens in their own country.
This, he pointed out, could lead to a total loss of the country’s essential cultural values among the youth.
“It is for this reason that our educational administrators should find a way of using education to inculcate our cultural values in all those who pass through the educational system,” President Kufuor stated.
On democracy, President Kufuor emphasised the need for education to be used to consolidate the country’s thriving democracy.
He, therefore, called for the introduction of books on the basic principles on which democracy thrived at the basic and second cycle levels to enable pupils and students to appreciate the essence of democracy in the country’s development aspirations.
Advising the graduates, the President urged them to let the moral and social discipline they had acquired from the university reflect in their daily lives to enable them to be “vanguards of the crusade to inject a high sense of discipline among the populace”.
Highlighting some of the educational achievements of the New Patriotic Party under his administration, the President mentioned the introduction of Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme, upgrading of a senior high school in each district to a model school, and judicious use of the GETFund for the provision of education infrastructure, among others.
He further said enrolment in public universities had more than doubled from 40,670 in 2000/2001 to 88,445 in 2006/2007 academic year, while that of polytechnics had also increased by more than 50 per cent from 18,470 in 2000/2001 to 28,695 in 2006/2007.
He commended the Presbyterian Church of Ghana for the immense role it had played in the country’s educational development, adding that “the church has never relented in its efforts to partner successive governments in providing the manpower needs of this country”.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, Rt Rev. Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, said to complement efforts at making education accessible to all, the church had established over 2000 basic schools, 29 senior high schools, five colleges of education for the training of teachers and a number of vocational and technical institutions across the country.
For his part, the Principal of the PUC, Prof. K. Sraku-Lartey, said since the inception of the university in 2004, it had succeeded in producing graduates who were performing well on the job market.
He, however, mentioned the lack of accommodation for staff and students, shortage of water on all campuses of the institution, inadequate computers and accessories for its ICT programmes and vehicles to ease the movement of staff and students as some of the problems confronting the university.
He, therefore, appealed to the government and individuals to help address such problems.

NADMO CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOP ENDS IN K'DUA (SPREAD)

A three-day workshop to build the capacity of members of the Eastern Regional Disaster Management Committee to professionally handle disasters has ended in Koforidua.
The workshop was a partnership between the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the North Dakota National Guard, with support from the United States Embassy.
The participants, who were taken through topics such as the fundamentals of damage assessment, citizen core and community response and incident management, were drawn from NADMO, the Ghana Education Service and the National Ambulance Service.
Others were from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Information Services Department, the Ghana Red Cross Society, the Geological Survey Department, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ghana Highway Authority, the Eastern Regional Security Council, the Ghana Medical Association, the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Town and Country Planning Department.
In an address, the National Co-ordinator of NADMO, Mr Douglas Akrofi-Asiedu, said emergency management had become a complex responsibility that required the full co-operation and participation of all stakeholders.
That, he said, required that personnel of relevant agencies be equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge on emergency management to enable them to professionally handle disaster situations to save lives and property in the event of any emergency.
He was, therefore, happy about the partnership between NADMO and the North Dakota National Guard, which he noted would be used to improve the emergency management system in the Eastern Region in particular and Ghana in general.
The Team Leader of the North Dakota National Guard, Mr Doug Frieze, noted that since disaster management was part of human existence, it was the responsibility of all to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure survival in the event of a disaster.
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WORK STARTS ON ANUC'S NEW BUILDINGS (PAGE 39)

CONSTRUCTION work on permanent buildings for the All Nations University College (ANUC) in Koforidua has commenced on a 1,000-acre near Akwadum along the Koforidua-Suhum road.
The GH¢7 million complex, which started on November 6, this year, includes an engineering block, students’ hostels and two other blocks to serve as accommodation for faculty members.
The project, which is being financed by the university’s Canada-based partner, All Nations International Development Agency (ANIDA), and being executed by Antarctic Contract Works, a Koforidua-based construction firm, is expected to be completed by July 2009 to enable the university to shift its operations to the new premises in September of the same year.
The engineering block comprises 12 workshops, six lecture theatre halls and offices for members of staff, while the students’ hostels would be able to accommodate 900 students.
The two other faculty blocks will provide 30 residential apartments for members of staff and management of the university.
At a ceremony during which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the university and Antarctic Contracts Works, the President of the university, Rev Dr Samuel Donkor, said the complex would be used for engineering programmes such as electronics and communications, biomedical and computer science.
Rev Dr Donkor stated that the university had already completed a workshop for its oil and gas engineering programme, adding that another building would soon be put up for a proposed School of Medical Sciences.

7 FAMILY MEMBERS PERISH IN ACCIDENT

SEVEN persons died on the spot when a bus on which they were travelling somersaulted and crashed into a tree at Asitey Hill along the Orterkpolu-Krobo Odumase road on Wednesday.
The deceased included the driver of the Mitsubishi mini-bus and a four-year-old girl.
Six other passengers sustained serious injuries, while a six-month-old baby girl escaped unhurt.
The vehicle, with registration number GW 1104 S, was conveying a family from Aketengbo, a village near Asesewa, to Krobo-Odumase for a funeral when the crash occurred at about 9.20 p.m.
Others who survived the accident have been identified as John Amanor, 53; Joseph Kofi, 16; Yohannes Tetteh, 37; Mamle Kenney, 36; Rosina Tetteh, 16 and Leticia Tetteh, a six-year-old, while those who died are yet to be identified.
The bodies of the deceased have been deposited at the Atua Government Hospital morgue, while the injured are responding to treatment at the hospital.
The survivors, who were trapped together with the deceased in the terribly mangled bus were rescued by some of the residents of the area.
A few minutes after the accident, police personnel from Krobo-Odumase arrived at the scene to support the residents who were engaged in the rescue operation and later called in personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service, who succeeded in bringing out the rest of the deceased.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the acting Akropong Divisional Police Commander, ASP Jack Levy, advised drivers to be extremely cautious when descending the hill, which he described as an accident-prone area.
Some of the residents who spoke to the Daily Graphic pleaded with the government to put in place the necessary measures to make the dangerous, hilly road accident-free.

RESIST PREACHING TRIBAL POLITICS — AKUFO-ADDO (PAGE 14)

THE Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged Ghanaians to resist the preaching of tribal politics by some political leaders as part of their political strategy to whip up tribal sentiments against the NPP.
This, he said, would not foster greater unity and peaceful co-existence among Ghanaians.
“As Ghanaians, we should not take interest in tribal politics since it could bring about division among us and take us backward. We need politics of unity and solidarity to move forward to a promising future” he stated.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who repeatedly made the appeal during the second phase of his tour of the Eastern Region, stated “we must shun politicians who come to us to preach tribal politics to whip up ethnic sentiments against other tribes and parties”.
He was speaking at separate rallies held at Akyem Oda, Bodua, Kade, Akyem Swedru, Akosombo and Agormenya in the Eastern Region on Monday and Tuesday.
In the opinion of the NPP presidential aspirant, the unity and peaceful co-existence among Ghanaians over the years had enabled the country to become an oasis of peace in the sub-region, an enviable achievement that must be protected and promoted by Ghanaians.
This, he believed, would help the country to go through another successful election to enable the country to sustain its status as a model of democracy on the African continent.
“It is for these reasons that we must not allow ourselves to be incited by some self-seeking politics who play on our rich diverse ethnic diversity to divide us”, he emphasised.
“NPP does not belong to any particularly group of people. It belongs to all of us, including the Ashantis, the Akyems, the Ewes, the Dagombas, the Gas, among others”, Nana Akufo-Addo added.
To ensure the conduct of a violence-free elections, he appealed to all stakeholders, particularly political parties and their candidates as well as the electorate to help the Electoral Commission to undertake another peaceful elections.
“This requires of us to resist the urge to engage in any electoral malpractices that could tarnish the credibility of the December elections”, he explained.
On employment, Nana Akufo-Addo pledged to use the revenue that would accrue from the country’s discovery of oil to embark on massive industrial revolution to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
“Besides, I will also set up a $1-billion industrial fund to give the needed assistance to small scale industries to help them to expand to provide employment for the youth”, he announced.
At Akosombo, he assured the people that he would facilitate the expansion of the Juapong Textile Factory to provide employment avenues for the people of Akosombo, Juapong and their environs.
At Kade, Nana Akufo-Addo also expressed his preparedness to consult President Kufuor on how to get investors to revive the Ghana Consolidated Diamonds and pay the accumulated salary arrears of the workers.
Other speakers, including Messrs Yaw Osafo Maafo, Kwabena Agyepong, Boakye Agyarko, Felix Owusu Agyepong and Yaw Gyekye Amoabeng, appealed to the electorate to consider the almost eight years of the NPP government to that of the National Democratic Congress before casting their votes in the December elections.

NGO DONATES MEDICAL ITEMS TO HOSPITAL (PAGE 20)

RHODE Foundation, a non-governmental organisation at the weekend, donated assorted medical items worth $1,200 to the Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital at Koforidua.
The items comprised surgical materials, including lubricants, gloves, disposable sponge disk and tapes.
Presenting the items, the National Secretary of Rhode Foundation, Mr Benjamin B. Dei, said the donation was to support the hospital to improve on its services to patients most of whom came from the New Juaben Municipality.
He said the gesture was in line with the NGO’s initiative to support some selected health facilities.
Besides that support, Mr Dei indicated that the NGO had been working in some rural communities, where it had been training a number of pupils to help maintain a clean environment in their respective areas.
Receiving the items on behalf of the hospital’s management, Mrs Christine Osafo, the matron, thanked the Rhode Foundation for the support and said the hospital would use the items judiciously.

AKUFO-ADDO ASSURES PEOPLE OF AFRAM PLAINS (PAGE 17)

THE presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has pledged his commitment to boost agricultural production in the Kwahu North District (Afram Plains) to enable the area to regain its past status as the food basket of the country.
He also promised to provide fishing nets for fishermen in the area at subsidised prices, as well as add two more pontoons to the one in use now in less than a year to facilitate the movement of people and goods in the area.
“The NPP government has also secured a $32 million loan from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) as part of efforts at boosting agricultural production in the area,” Nana Akufo-Addo announced.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who was speaking at separate rallies at Tease, Donkorkrom, Kwaekese and Ekye Amanfrom, all in the Afram Plains, declared, “I will ensure that the Afram Plains becomes the main beneficiary of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funds when elected as president in December.”
The NPP candidate, who was accompanied by some of the party’s executives, including the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu; the former Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo; Eastern Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr Yaw Gyekye Amoabeng; Ghana’s Ambassador-designate to Ireland, Ms Gloria Akuffo, among others, was on the second phase of his tour of the Eastern Region.
The tour was also used to officially open an NPP office at Ekye Amanfrom.
He said that funds from the MCA would be used to embark on massive social interventions in the Afram Plains in areas such as the construction of roads, health facilities and schools, as well as connect a few of the communities without electricity to the national grid to improve the lot of the people.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, since the Afram Plains had an enormous potential to ensure food security in the country, he would make every effort to provide the necessary assistance for farmers in the area.
To that end, he indicated his government’s preparedness to work closely with the relevant organisations to institute various training programmes to educate farmers on modern agricultural practices.
That, he believed, would enable them to increase their farm yields to enable them to earn decent living to support themselves and also make agriculture attractive to the youth.
“I, Nana Akufo-Addo, also pledge my commitment to institute a pension scheme for our hardworking cocoa farmers to secure their future and also make cocoa farming a rewarding venture for the unemployed youth in the area,” he said.
He told the farmers in the area that now that the country had become a major emergency food depot point in the sub-region, farmers, including those in the Afram Plains, would now have a ready market to sell their produce at competitive prices.
He, therefore, appealed to the people in the area to change their perception about the NPP by voting massively for the party in the December elections, saying that would enable him, as President, to continue the good works of the Kufuor administration.
“No longer can you afford to make the mistake of placing the destiny of this promising country in the hands of an incompetent, inefficient and unproductive group of people, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC),” Nana Akufo-Addo stated.
Some of the opinion leaders in the area commended the NPP government for introducing various people-centred initiatives such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, the School Feeding Programme and the Capitation Grant, which they said had brought much relief to them.
The opinion leaders at Kwaekese particularly appealed to the government to connect the area to the national grid to improve socio-economic activities in the area.
Other speakers, including Messrs Affram Asiedu, Osafo-Maafo, Boakye Agyarko, Ms Akuffo and Ms Grace Omaboe, appealed to the electorate to weigh the positive achievements of the NPP government in its nearly eight-year rule against that of the NDC before casting their vote in December.