Ghana Has Made Progress

…In Spite Of Economic Challenges

The immediate past President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Nana Dr S. K. B. Asante says Ghana has made progress despite economic challenges she faced. He said for nearly 15 years the country had successfully operated a constitutional democracy with a peaceful transfer of power from one party to another and the achievements had been recognized by the international community which ranked Ghana as the fastest reforming nation in Africa.

“Although our political atmosphere is not entirely free of “boom” noises we can say that in the area of governance, we are zooming on target.”

Delivering a keynote address to the 58th Annual New Year School, which opened at the University of Ghana, Legon on Wednesday, Nana Asante said Ghana was rated the most peaceful nation in Africa, given B+ sovereign credit rating; ranked the fastest reforming nation on the continent and 9th in the World in doing business.The New Year School which started in 1948 is being held this year under the theme: "Ghana at 50, Achievements, Challenges and the Future."

It would provide the platform for the participants and the nation to examine key national concerns since independence, the choices that were made and the consequences with a view to providing directions for the future. About 600 delegates including District Chief Executives; Members of Parliament (MPs); representatives of organized labour and civil society organizations are attending the School.

Nana Dr Asante, who is also the Omanhene of Asante Asokore, said beyond these constitutional and legal measures, the country needed a fundamental or “radical philosophical orientation that sees political parties as a mechanism for true national ideologies for national, economic and social programmes for national development far removed from parochial ethnic or sectarian interests”.

He said Ghana had survived as a national entity and as a fully integrated and functional State for nearly 50 years “although we cannot entirely dismiss the potentially divisive or corrosive effects of ethnic or communal cleavages or uneven development in various parts of Ghana”.

He said the Government had done a lot to strengthen the economy by improving domestic resource mobilization; paying domestic debt; getting Ghana’s external debt reduced from 6.7 billion dollars to 2.4 billion dollars; getting a Millennium Challenge Account of 547 million dollars to be used over a five-year period.

Under education, Nana Dr Asante said the country’s performance in the sector had been uneven and that though Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah gave a major impetus to the expansion and democratization of educational facilities, this had not been sustained.

Comparing Ghana to South Korea, he said Korea embarked on a comprehensive development plan that provided for the expansion of the educational system targeting their skill development programmes to the critical areas where competitiveness could be improved.

He also noted that other challenges like poverty, the energy crisis, sanitation, health, chieftaincy and some cultural practices which were offensive to fundamental rights like the Trokosi system, brutalization of “witches” and widowhood rites needed to be tackled to push forward the national development agenda.

The Acting Director of the Institute of Adult Education of the University of Ghana, Mr. Reuben A. Aggor said as organizers of the New Year School, the Institute had started a process of identifying suitable candidates to be groomed to improve its staff strength. He said this would reduce the workload on the staff and enable the Institute to delve more into research and publications.

“As with other Departments of the University, the average age of Lecturers in the institute is above 50. This means that only about 40 per cent of the current staff will be in active service in the next few years. This is a big challenge.”

Mr Aggor said some of the achievements were that the School had helped hundreds of Ghanaians to discover themselves and to continue their education adding; “without such provisions we might not have produced eminent Ghanaians like President Hilla Limann and numerous others”. He said recommendations of the School had been taken serious by Ministries, Departments and Agencies and had helped to put various governments on their toes through healthy criticisms.

Professor Nii Boi Tagoe, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said to reach out to more students, the University would introduce Distance Education to enable it to teach many students off campus but maintaining the same standards.

Topics to be discussed at the School which ends on January 9, 2007 include “The State of the National Economy: 50 Years after Independence”; “Governance During the Past Five Decades; Views of the Younger Generation”; “Education in the Past 50 years”; “Adult Education and National Development” and “Environment and Health”.