VC Worried Over Ethnicity In Schools

(Ghanaian Times) -- Professor Emmanuel Addow Obeng, Vice Chancellor of the University Of Cape Coast (UCC), has cautioned against the creeping ethnicity into society particularly among students in the various tertiary institutions.

He said while ethnicity per se might not be bad, there was the need for the various ethnic groupings to work together to enhance than its disintegration.

Prof. Obeng said this at the matriculation of 4,158 students of which 1,455 are females, into the university on Saturday.

They are made up of 27 PhDs, 220 Masters and 3,911 under-graduates.

He said university training must inculcate into students the virtue of tolerance of different views and urged therefore asked students to accept criticism with open-mindedness.

"Here on campus, there are many associations based on ethnic groups. These are good in themselves because they will enable the groups to lend support to their villages and towns to grow. But it is important to note that these groups ought to work together to enhance national togetherness rather than disintegration", he said.

The Vice Chancellor therefore challenged all ethnic groups on campus to work together to ensure cohesion and to be tolerable of each other in all aspects of life be it political, religious or social.

Prof. Obeng noted that recent revelations at the Justice Georgina Wood Committee indicated that the issue of narcotic deals were real in the country and some Ghanaians were prepared to benefit from it irrespective of the damage it caused to citizens.

Students, he said, were at risk and must discard the motion that narcotic drugs could enhance one’s ability to study and rather concentrate on their studies, adding that research had proven that majority of people who relied on narcotic ended up being destroyed.

Prof. Obeng said the university authorities had made a member of intervention to solve the perennial accommodation problem that confronts students.

He said as part of those efforts, the university have, wit the support of the GET Fund taken over the district assemblies hostel construction expected to be completed within the next two months for students to occupy.

He called on the government to re-award the contract for the construction of the Presidential Support Hostel in order to ease the student’s accommodation problem on campus.

He said: "It was our hope that the contractor would have completed the project this year to enable students to have adequate place of residence. However, he has unduly delayed the project which has resulted in the contract being terminated".

Meanwhile, some private individuals and organisations had expressed interest in the provision of hostels on campus.

Prof. Obeng reiterated the university’s desire to lead in ensuring gender parity and equal access to all in higher education.

Consequently, he said this year’s female intake