Next NDC government will revamp tertiary education - NDC’s manifesto

The next government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would establish a new College of Education as an Instructor Training College for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) at Agona Swedru in the Central Region.

It would also complete the University of Environment and Sustainable Development at Somanya and its satellite campus at Donkorkrom in the Eastern Region.

These are contained in the NDC’s manifesto for the 2016 elections dubbed: “Changing lives and Transforming Ghana,” which was made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

The analysis of the manifesto is part of the GNA’s project, “GNA Tracks Election 2016,” which seeks to sensitise the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, elections management body and other governance institutions.

The GNA 2016 project also seeks to ensure gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, as well as contribute its quota to the achievement of a peaceful poll in December.

Another objective of the GNA project is to create a platform to disect the manifestos of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.

“We will also complete the establishment of three additional Colleges of Education in the underserved regions of Greater Accra, Central and the Northern Regions; and continue to implement the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning Programme (T-TEL) to cover professional training for 35,000 teachers in all the Colleges of Education.

“We will complete the conversion of the ten Polytechnics into Technical Universities and adequately resource them to ensure the provision of advanced technical, vocational and technological training; and support capacity building for Faculty of Technical Universities and the tertiarized Colleges of Education,” the NDC said.

According to the manifesto, the NDC will continue to resource the public tertiary institutions to improve quality and increase the intake of qualified applicants. It would provide additional facilities to augment the operations of the new Medical Schools of the University of Cape Coast, University for Development Studies and the University of Health and Allied Sciences.

Furthermore, it would initiate a review of medical training in Ghana with the objective of increasing the number of doctors to address the health needs of unserved and under-served parts of the country, as well as create an enabling environment for the establishment of high-standard private sector Medical Schools, which will be well regulated and properly maintained.

The document said allocations from the GETFUND would be made available for the training of Faculty members of tertiary institutions, adding that scholarships would also be provided for the training of critical manpower needed to drive Ghana’s transformation agenda, with more support to private tertiary institutions to deliver on their mandate.

It said the Students Loan Scheme would continue to be extended to students in all accredited Tertiary institutions, while private tertiary institutions would also be engaged so as to focus their curricula on the human resource requirements of the country.

The GETFUND Act would be amended to extend support to private tertiary institutions engaged in science and engineering training, it stated.

“We propose to continue supporting the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open-Schooling (CENDLOS) to harmonize open and distance learning activities.

On non-formal education, the document said the NDC intended to increase support to, and empower the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education to enable it to make the necessary interventions for life-long education in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number Four.

“As far as practicable, we will provide accommodation for teachers who accept postings to deprived rural schools, and re-introduce incremental credit for Science, Mathematics, TVET, and continue to issue financial clearance to employ more graduate teachers as and when appropriate.”

The government would also support teachers in science, mathematics and TVET to upgrade their skills, it stated.