Minister calls for national debate on funding of education

Accra, Feb. 14, GNA - Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education on Monday called for a national debate on funding of education especially private tertiary institutions.

She said this would determine whether government should include private universities in the disbursement of funds to provide quality education to students who could not enter the few and over-stretched public universities..

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu made the call when the Board of Trustees of Valley View University (VVU) paid a courtesy call on her to discuss tertiary education in the country in Accra.

She said there was the need for government to collaborate with the authorities of private universities to improve the educational sector for national development.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu urged them to focus on bio-diversity with reference to renewable resources, since the world had become sophisticated in all spheres.

She said universities should train the youth to harness the available resources in the country to become productive to the society. Dr Daniel Buor, Vice-Chancellor of VVU said the call was to inform the Sector Minister on the approach of the university to education, explaining that education in the country needed a holistic approach to achieve the targeted purpose. He said the major problem facing VVU was its infrastructural base whic= h prevented them from introducing new programmes.

Dr Buor appealed to the Ministry of Education to allow authorities of private universities to have access to some allocation from the Ghana Education Trust Fund to reverse the situation. He suggested the need for the establishment of an Information Technology Centre at the university to serve as a training centre for Junio= r and Senior High Schools.