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A two-day workshop aimed at facilitating the establishment of an electronic database for the collection and dissemination of theses and dissertations from African universities for research purposes opened in Accra on Tuesday.
The workshop being organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) in collaboration with the University of Ghana, Legon is also aimed at promoting the establishment of a three-year project - Database of African Theses And Dissertations (DATAD) Programme, to improve access to African scholarly work both in and out of Africa.
Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said the lack of adequate structures for information dissemination remained a major problem in Africa.
"With the advent of information and communication technology, African scholars and scholarly output face a threat of marginalisation, especially in a globalised world, where review of research literature is increasingly being limited to review of electronic literature."
The Vice-Chancellor said the AAU had since 1996, developed a concerted approach to address the problem of production, management and access and dissemination of research information through the establishment of DATAD.
He said the project would, among other objectives, create a central source of information on the continent and improve accessibility to the works of African scholars both within and outside the continent.
Madam Mary Materu Behitsa, Coordinator of DATAD, said 11 universities including the University of Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenyatta were being provided with computers, scanners and other facilities to help in the formation of a network of information.
Prof Akilakpa Sawyerr, Head of AAU, said it was important to link universities, libraries, students and lecturers together to enhance academic work.
Source: gna
The government has been asked to bear the full cost of tertiary education since the Education Trust Fund was solely established to cater for education.
The Dean of Students of the University Of Ghana, Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Hohoe South Kosi Kedem shared this common stance at the maiden launch of ''Legon Speaks," an open forum meant for students and stakeholders as well as opinion leaders to discuss issues of national interest.
The two men argued that even before the GET Fund was established the past regime made it mandatory to bear 70 per cent cost while parents and other institutions to bore the remaining 30 per cent. They called on government to up pay the 30 per cent which borne by parents with the GET fund.
An educationist and a former Secretary of Education in the PNDC regime Dr K.B. Asante, urged government to make tertiary education one of its national priorities to enable Ghana is to develop to the middle income status anticipated.
There is talk of an almost 100 per cent increase in tetiary education fees as gorvenment seeks to get parents pay what it calls realistic fees for the education of their wards.
The subject of who funds education has been a thorny one since time immemorial often leading to students demonstrations and disruption of the academic calendar.
Lecturers at the University of Cape Coast are beside themselves with disbelief following weeks of harassment suffered by the President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Mr Abooley. Sources close to UTAG told the ''Insight'' that Mr Abooley’s harassment may be directly related to the Association’s struggles for improved conditions of work.
It all begun when Abooley got a letter warning him that if UTAG declared a strike, his children will be harmed. The letter named his children and the schools they attend.
Sometime later, unknown persons broke into Mr Abooley’s office on the University campus. They consumed what was in the refrigerator and urinated in a bowl which they left behind with a letter. The letter simply said that ''we will be back''.
Following these harassment, lecturers of the UCC held a marathon meeting to discuss the situation. It is still not clear what action the lecturers intend to take to protect their colleague or whether the security services have been informed of the threats.
The Insight is frantically trying to establish contact with Mr Abooley
The Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Victor P.K. Gadzekpo, has expresssed the need for another study of secondary-technical school requirement to allow students to combine their subjects in such a way that they can equally enter the other universities, should they fail to get admission to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
He lauded the junior secondary school idea, but regretted the inability of the authorities to carry it through Prof. Gadzekpo who was the guest speaker at the launch of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Suhum Secondary-Techinical School in Accra, over the weekend, called for the consolidation of the JSS concept to ensure that the technical component is well-organised and harnessed for the nation’s common good.
This, the professor – an old student of Suhum Secondary-Technical, explained will call for the provision of technical workshops for all JSS schools and suggested that technical subjects should be made examinable, just as the other subjects.
The dean said the JSS schools could be attached to various identified workshops in the community where the students could have practical training while money is sought to provide the worksops. He paid glowing tribute to the founders and pioneers of the school for their vision and foresight and urged the students to keep the vision ablaze.
The headmaster of the school, J. Addo Larbi, said the school which started with about 72 students and a handful of staff in 1963, now has a student population of 1,264 with 56 teaching staff and 63 non-teaching staff. He said the school lacks an assembly hall and appealed to past students and other stakeholders to consider the building of one as a birthday present.
The DCE for Suhum, Michel Kofi Mensah, whose speech was read for him,called on society and other private orgainisations to fund the cost to education in collaboration with the governement