National summit to draft National Vision Plan to be held

The National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, with support from Trust Africa, Senegal, will organise a three-day national summit from Wednesday, November 2 in Accra, to draft a national vision plan for tertiary education.

The summit, to be held on the theme, ‘Crafting a national vision and plan for the 21st century”, would also offer an opportunity for stakeholders to make recommendations to inform a draft national vision and plan for tertiary education, and propose an implementation framework.

A statement issued in Accra, and signed by Mrs. Hilda Asante, the Head of Public Relations and Documentation of the NCTE, copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said the summit would be a follow-up to the National Policy Dialogue on Tertiary Education, which was held in 2013.

It would also provide inputs for the current efforts at developing a long term national development plan for the nation.

The statement quoted Professor Mohammed Salifu, the Executive Secretary of the NCTE, as saying: “The summit will provide an opportunity for stakeholders in education, policy-makers, industry and civil society to deliberate on the sub-thematic areas of the draft national vision and plan document.”

The areas are postgraduate training, research and development, funding, private sector participation, diversification and differentiation.

Prof. Salifu explained that “this will help in the supervision, management and governance of tertiary education in Ghana and make it more responsive to the country’s development needs in the 21st century”.

About 150 participants selected from academic institutions, civil society organisations, think tanks, ministries, departments, agencies, the private sector, Parliament and the media, would attend the summit with, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the Minister of Education as the special guest of honour.

Speakers would include Prof. C.N.B Tagoe, Chairman of the NCTE, and a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Prof. Josephus Anamuah-Mensah, a former Vice-Chancellor, University of Education, Winneba.

The rest are Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah, a former Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana and Dr. Omano Edigheji, Consultant/Advisor, Africa’s Higher Education Dialogues, Trust Africa.

The NCTE is committed to providing leadership in tertiary education by also advising the government and all relevant institutions, to enhance access, quality, equity, relevance and governance.

Trust Africa works principally through collaboration and partnership with like-minded institutions and donors and as a catalyst and a convener, and is committed to generating and testing new ideas, and “it also strives to practice good governance and promote it among its grantees”, according to the statement.