OKUDZETO CALLS FOR SUPPORT FOR MISSION VARSITIES (SPREAD, JAN 4, 2011)

THE Chairman of the Presbyterian University Council, Mr Sam Okudzeto, has appealed to the government to amend the GETFund Act to enable mission-based private universities to receive funding for their programmes.
“As trusted partners to the government in education delivery, private universities are producing graduates, hence the government should do well to support their training to enable them to receive the best education for national development,” he stated.
Speaking at the fourth congregation of the Presbyterian University College (PUC) in Abetifi on Saturday, Mr Okudzeto said “failure of the government to support them is a mark of discrimination against the students of these universities and their parents who also contribute to the GETFund”.
“Since tuition is free for students of public universities, I propose that students in private universities must be given students’ loans which can pay off their total tuition fee in order to lessen pressure of cash on their parents,” he stated.
The congregation, which was on the theme: “Training the total person for national development: The role of the Presbyterian University College”, saw 200 students graduating.
Mr Okudzeto said governments the world over invested in education because of the dividends they derived from that investment.
However, he said in order to obtain the full benefit of education, governments should provide a policy on the type of skills which the educational institutions should provide to meet their country’s developmental needs.
In line with that, he said, every government should have a say in the content of the syllabuses to ensure the development of skills which would be of benefit to its human resource.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt Rev Prof. Emmanuel Martey, said the church was determined to support the university to open more campuses in the cities and urban centres to ensure “our continued survival as a tertiary institution”.
“With the assistance of the Asante Presbytery, the church is opening an additional campus in Kumasi, beginning from the 2011/2012 academic year, and this will be followed in the near future with another campus in Accra,” he announced.
Earlier, the Principal of the PUC, Professor Kofi Sraku-Lartey, had mentioned acute water shortage as one of the major challenges confronting the institution and appealed to the government and individuals to help address the situation.