African governments urged to invest in distance education

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, former Deputy Minister of Education has urged African governments to invest in Open University education because it is an alternative to traditional classrooms.

He said distance education was the solution to addressing the educational needs of students, who could not be admitted into the public tertiary institutions due to work or family issues.

The former Minister said this at the 36th congregation of Laweh Open University in Accra for the conferment and presentation of postgraduate and undergraduate degrees.

The event was on the theme"Year of Return".

According to Mr. Ablakwa, open University education was recognised as the future of higher education across the world.

"Higher education which is the discovering of knowledge will be meaningless if it does not reflect in the transformation of society", he said.

Mr. Ablakwa stated that the continent was crying for a new breed of African educated elite who would truly show the world that they were capable of managing its affairs.

He said personal prosperity messages spearheaded by charismatic churches must give way to the prosperity of the community for sustained national development.

He stressed that it behooved on all and sundry to sacrifice a little more to serve the country devoid of greed, corruption and practices that affect quality education.

Research revealed that universities in Africa need to adopt new ways of teaching through technology, otherwise they might be rendered irrelevant and unable to compete on a global scale.

Mr. Ablakwa reiterated that the higher education of the future in Africa needed to restructure their curricula that was inclusive, innovative, intersectional and inter-disciplinary.



He urged the graduates to be ambassadors of change and impact positively on the knowledge they acquired for societal development.

Professor Goski Alabi, President of Laweh Open University College underscored the importance of distance education as a tool to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal four.

"At the University, we prepare students for the professions and careers of their lives through useful and applied learning methods".

Laweh Open University College is the first accredited distance University in Ghana affiliated to the Open University of Tanzania.

It offers bachelors and masters degree programmes in finance and accounting, marketing, international business management, entrepreneurship and human resource management.