Veep asks universities to be ambitious in the 21st Century

Accra, Feb.17, GNA- Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the weekend, tasked tertiary schools to undergo critical re-orientation in order to develop the human resources required for effective adjustment in the social, industrial and global market of the 21st century.

"A key and indispensable factor in this transformation, which necessarily involves diversification of disciplines, lies in the mastery of science and technology," he said, Vice President Mahama was speaking when he attended the second matriculation of Regent University College of Science and Technology and the commissioning of the Kings Campus of the University. He tasked the University authorities to combine practical education with rigorous academic study and research, so that the students would require little or no training to get started on a job after graduation.

"If your graduates are not easily absorbed by industry or are unable to create jobs for themselves and others, then you would have failed in your mission. "If you are able to do this, the labour market can easily absorb your products without asking for working experience, which sometimes keep off most of our young graduates from securing jobs."

He commended the churches for being at the forefront in the promotion and growth of formal education for many years. "The active involvement of the churches in the current efforts to establish private universities therefore is a welcoming development as it also marks a continuation in the history of the role of churches in the educational development of the country.

Vice President Mahama pledged the support of the Ghana Education Trust Fund to support the infrastructure expansion programmes of the University.

Turning his attention to the students, he said: 93The future of this country is bright and you can help make it brighter and greener. Those of you endowed with entrepreneurial acumen and skills will find that going into private business may yield handsome dividends." Professor Kingsley Kwabena Larbi, President and Chief Executive Officer of the University asked Ghanaians to change their negative attitude to time as well as their inability to plan ahead and the poor culture of maintenance.

He said until some cultural trappings were changed, Ghana would not be essentially different during the next 50 years. Prof. Larbi said 50 years of Ghana's independence called for wailing instead of joy since paradoxically the country was underdeveloped in the midst of plenty.

He expressed displeasure that most Ghanaians think it is only when they travel abroad that they can make it, while foreigners come to invest in the country and make huge profits. "The problems of illiteracy, poverty, filth and disease are serious developmental challenges," He said.

Justice Francesca Owusu-Arhin, Justice of the High Court administered the matriculation oath to the students, who pledged among other things to keep away from all immoral and illegal acts. "=85 I will not drink any intoxicants of any kind; I will not use tobacco," they all pledged. 17 Feb. 07