THE Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina T. Wood, has called on universities and other tertiary institutions to design courses that will equip students with knowledge and employable skills in the oil and gas industry.
That, she said, would enable Ghanaian students to take advantage of the numerous employment opportunities offered by the exploitation of oil and gas in the country.
“It is time tertiary education considered positioning itself to take opportunities that are uncovered on a daily basis so that Ghanaians can take their destiny into their own hands, especially in the field of oil,” she stated.
The Chief Justice made the call in a speech read on her behalf by Mr Justice Paul Baffoe Bonnie, a Justice of the Supreme Court, at the sixth convocation of the All Nations University College (ANUC) in Koforidua on Saturday.
The event, at which 281 students who pursued various programmes at the university graduated, coincided with the matriculation of 850 students into the institution.
“History shows that countries can only thrive better when they invest in their people and infrastructure, when they promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled workforce and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs,” Mrs Wood said.
The Chief Justice said the country was currently battling with challenges of development, in spite of the fact that various governments and organisations had, over the years, put in place different policies and projects to improve the quality of education, reduce poverty and speed up the rate of development.
“However, despite these wonderful policies and projects, the country is only creeping out of high rate of unemployment, high rate of school drop-outs, increasing population, high rural-urban drift, among other numerous socio-economic challenges,” Mrs Wood stated.
She expressed delight that in spite of those challenges, the country had, over the years, witnessed an increase in the number of private universities which supported the few overcrowded and overstretched public universities in the country.
“It is invigorating that the religious bodies that pioneered education in Ghana have vigorously joined that crusade of university education and equally taken the challenge to assist the educational sector in bringing up graduates who are instilled with decent moral behaviour.
“The expectations are that these fresh graduates will come up with fresh and innovative ideas to strengthen the inefficient, ill-equipped, grossly underpaid, demoralised, unmotivated and unresponsive civil and public service that has bedevilled all African countries, including Ghana,” the Chief Justice stated.
In an address read on his behalf, the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, commended the role being played by private universities to develop tertiary education in the country.
“While the government welcomes private participation in tertiary education as a solution to improving access, if we are to derive benefits from education, we must ensure that curriculum is relevant and quality is high,” he said.
He commended private institutions providing tertiary education but cautioned that “we must be able to increase access without overcrowding classrooms and improve quality with better learning resources without making education unaffordable”.
The Provost of the College of Science of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor R. K. Nkum, advised the graduates to be prepared to learn from the experiences of others they would meet on the job market to enable them to excel in their chosen careers.
Earlier in his welcoming address, the President of the ANUC, Dr Samuel H. Donkor, had said the university would partner major research institutions and universities, both local and international, for research collaboration to make the ANUC a centre of excellence in research and innovation.
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