GIMPA DESERVES PRAISE (AUGUST 24)

THE human resource of any country holds the key to progress and prosperity. Whatever the people decide to do or otherwise determines the future direction of that community.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) chose as its slogan “investing in job creation, people and the economy” during the last elections because without a well-trained human resource the country’s development agenda cannot be attained.
No doubt, universities or tertiary institutions of all kinds have been established across the length and breadth of the country offering courses that are essential for nation building.
Even though most of the private tertiary institutions are offering courses in business and administration there are other training institutions filling the gap in offering training in information communication technology (ICT).
The worry, however, is that apart from the six public universities that specialise in specific disciplines, most of the private institutions are concentrating on particular disciplines to the detriment of other crucial areas of the economy.
Now, training in Science and Technology, ICT and Oil and Gas has become very crucial if Ghana is to attain a middle-income status by 2020.
There cannot be any quick fixes to our plan to become a major economic power on the African continent. We need to plan systematically, especially at the education front, by training people who will take charge of the sectors that will propel us to the ‘promised land’.
It is against this background that the DAILY GRAPHIC shares in the call by Vice-President John Dramani Mahama for the establishment of strong institutions that will help to transform the country’s economy.
GIMPA has pioneered a training programme at the tertiary level that has caught on with all our universities. About a decade ago, it was a taboo to mention or suggest the introduction of sandwich programmes, evening courses and weekend schools at the tertiary level.
Our universities were then closeted in their conservative mould such that they thought it was unnecessary to open the universities to people who could find time to attend lectures only after the close of work, at weekends or during long vacations.
The University of Cape Coast (UCC), for instance, has, through the sandwich programmes, helped to empower many teachers and other professionals attain higher qualification.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that nothing is impossible when there is the will and commitment to do so. We concede that the public universities were starved of resources to run many of the programmes then thought to be unorthodox on our campuses. But with the introduction of sandwich programmes and weekend schools, many of the universities have generated revenue internally to carry out their expansion programmes.
We commend GIMPA for blazing the trail in this regard and urge it to expand its horizon further so that it can admit many of the youth and even working people who are ‘hungry’ for further academic pursuits
The initiative, however, must not be at the expense of good quality education. While the numbers knock at the door thirsty for higher education, it behoves the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to enforce regulations that make it impossible for unscrupulous people to cheat.
The bottom line is that the NAB must bite by “naming and shaming” proprietors who establish schools without accreditation so that our young people do not waste their precious time, energy and money looking for academic laurels in unaccredited institutions.