“Acquisition of certificates can no longer solve problems”
The Former Vice- Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwah, has said that the mere acquisition of certificates could no longer solve the socio-economic development problems of the country.
Professor Adarkwah has therefore called for an educational system tailored towards finding lasting solutions to the immediate and strategic national development goals at all levels.
The former Vice-Chancellor made the call at the 20th Anniversary and Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Presbyterian Senior High School at Mampong-Akuapem over the weekend.
Speaking onr the theme “Quality Education, Key to National Development” Professor Adarkwah said the quality of the human resource base of every country was without doubt one of the most valued and important resources through which that country could accelerate development and achieve comparative advantage in the global world.
He said quality education should lead to the improvement of quality of life of all Ghanaians by empowering the populace, especially the youth, to overcome poverty and raise their living standards.
“For us to achieve this as a nation, our students should be trained to develop their entrepreneurial skills, which is needed for a radical socio-economic development” he emphasized.
He said students and for that matter the youth should be equipped to fully fine tune their creativity, insight and analytical skills to be able to find affordable and sustainable solutions to the nation’s myriad of development problems of poverty, diseases, illiteracy, under-industrialization, youth unemployment and post harvest losses among others.
The Akuapem North District Director of Education and Acting Headmaster of the school, Mr Ben B. Cronze, said the school, which used to be Mampong Presbyterian Girls Middle School, was converted into secondary school in 1991 due to the educational reforms in 1988.
He said the school, which started with nine students made up of five boys and four girls, now has a population of 1,405 made up of 601 boys and 804 girls.
The acting headmaster mentioned some of the challenges facing the school as infrastructural development such as classroom blocks and teachers’ accommodation.
He appealed to the government and other stakeholders to come to the aid of the school to provide them with classrooms, dormitory for both boys and girls to enable the school to admit more students.
Mr Cronze commended the Parent/Teacher Association of the school for its support to the school over the years.
He said the PTA had provided the school a dining and assembly hall, a block of three classrooms and an office, two storey buildings 123 three-tier bedsteads among others.
Source: GNA