Central University (CU) has held her 22nd graduation ceremony with a call on government to make and implement a national Human Capital Policy framework to guide and sustain quality human capital development.
The convocation, which presented another excellence story of the CU within the private tertiary education space, was used to graduate 900 students from various disciplines.
In a speech, Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, Vice Chancellor of CU, reiterated his call for a Human Capital Policy framework to harness and develop Ghana’s human resources.
He asked the Government to improve the lot of teachers since they played a key role in national development.
Professor Puplampu urged the Government to refocus primary and secondary education in terms of content, structure, standardized quality, and resourcing.
‘In this regard, I find it rather upsetting when a school in the public system is euphemistically described as ‘less-endowed,’ he added.
Prof. Puplampu advised that government has to improve on existin
g educational structures and programmes had rather than chasing new ideas and building new structures.
‘Half the resources spent on new ventures could more than provide international standard of improvements to existing primary and secondary school institutions.’
‘Stop the mission creep and the unbridled expansion of the Public Sector space and the creation of new universities. We cannot afford it and there are at least 8 credible chartered private universities which can fill the gap and enable us attain the desired 40% Gross Enrolment Ratio by 2030,’ the Professor said.
He advised members of the graduating class to visualise their career aspirations and put a visual image and a symbolic reference to it, whilst they ‘work hard, diligently and demonstrate their expertise.’
Ms. Daniella Kosiwa Anani, who gave the valedictorian speech, asked her mates to dare to dream and thrive for excellence to realize their dreams.
Quoting the words of Brian Tracy, a renowned author in the field of self-development, she
said, ‘All successful people are big dreamers, dreams are the beginning of a life well lived and the drive for excellence is the fuel that will take those dreams to accomplishment.
They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or that purpose.’
The Central University has grown from a small proportion of a few hundred students to about 6000 students and nine Schools which are made up of the Central Business School.
The various schools include Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Engineering and Technology, School of Pharmacy, School of Architecture and Design, School of Graduate Studies and Research, the School of Medical Sciences, and School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Out of the total number of students who graduated, 805 were from the various undergraduate programmes and 95 from various graduate programmes.
Out of this number, 72 received 1st class degrees with 20 of them as best graduating s
tudents.
The overall best student, Ms. Daniella Kosiwa Anani, had a CGPA of 3.95.
Source: Ghana News Agency
Mr George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), has asked Ghanaian youth not to allow the play up of tribal politics, currently ongoing in the media space, to influence their voting decisions.
He noted that the current situation where the media describes the 2024 general election as the battle between two northerners was worrying and that the disturbing phenomenon should engage the attention of all peace-loving Ghanaians.
Addressing a durbar to climax the 80th Anniversary of the Effiduase Senior High School (EFFISCO), Mr Sarpong said never in the history of Ghana had a contest between two presidential candidates from a particular geographical area or region been played up in such a tribal or regionally biased manner.
‘The ‘Northernisation’ of political candidates in the 2024 general election in the media is very worrying and needs urgent action of all Ghanaians,’ he stated.
‘At no point in the history of Ghana had people referred to a political contest as a contest betw
een southerners, not even in the all-Akan contests between Mr J.A. Kufuor and Prof J.E.A. Mills, or between Prof. Mills and Nana Akufo-Addo in the previous elections,’ he observed.
‘Therefore, there is no reason why the next election should be referred to as northerners contest.’
It was important to hype the qualities of the two candidates and what they had to offer rather than ’emphasizing that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is a Mamprusi from Walewale, North East Region, and Mr John Mahama is a Gonja from Bole, Savannah Region,’ which played down their qualities and unacceptable, Mr Sarpong said.
‘The danger I’m drawing attention to is in the subtlety of the messaging in labelling all these diverse cultures as ‘northerners’,’ he said.
‘It denies them social equity and limits their opportunity for accessing public office since it makes it easy for us to sprinkle a few in positions and tell ourselves that we have satisfied the north.’
‘This inequality is how we subtly kill vision and undermine social progress.’
Mr
Sarpong, who is also an old student of the school, stressed the need for the youth to stand firm and vote for humble and visionary candidates, devoid of tribal or religious affiliations.
Young Ghanaians should give opportunity to a candidate who embodied the EFFISCO vision, resilience and excellence.
He advised the youth to see beyond the present; envision greatness, and set a purpose for their lives by choosing a leader with track records in the economic growth and development of the country.
The person who may define the positive course of their lives might not necessarily come from their hometown, tribe or religion, he said.
Mr Ishaq Kyei-Brobbey, the Headmaster of the school, touching on academic progress, said the 2022 WASSCE results reaffirmed the vision of the school as centre of excellence.
The percentage of credit passes A1 – C6 in English Language for the school was 82.7 per cent with 99.04 per cent for Mathematics.
Other subject areas like Science recorded 97.42 per cent pass, whilst Social S
tudies recorded 88.51 per cent.
With Ghana on course to developing her human resource capacity, EffISCO was strongly aligned, he said.
Currently the school has a student population of 3,581, comprising 1,787 males and 1,794 females, whilst the staff strength is 270, comprising 170 teaching staff and 100 non-teaching staff.
Awards were given to deserving students and staff members for their hard work.
Source: Ghana News Agency