By Afedzi Abdullah, GNA
Elmina (C/R), Oct. 15, GNA – Professor George
K.T. Oduro, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, has stressed
the need for Government to engage more with universities on how they could
absorb the expected huge numbers of free SHS graduates in 2020.
Again,
he said Government must prioritise recruitment clearance for universities and
ensure prompt release of budgetary allocations to the universities, for them to
prepare adequately for the expected high numbers of free SHS graduates.
“I also propose for the consideration that
there should be an entrance examination for all students who will be coming to
the university under the free SHS policy,” he added.
Prof Oduro made these recommendations when he
spoke as a panellist at a National Education Forum organized by the University
Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) in conjunction with the Canadian
Association of University Teachers (CAUT) on Thursday at Elmina.
The forum was on the theme: “Implementation of
the Free Senior High School (SHS) and the Double Track Policy: Implications for
Quality Tertiary Education in Ghana”.
It was aimed at creating a platform to
interrogate the free SHS and the double track policy, their economic and social
impact, human resource, and infrastructural challenges.
It was also to assess the role of GETfund and
other state institutions in finding lasting solutions to the anticipated
challenges of the policies leading to quality tertiary education in Ghana.
Prof Oduro encouraged the universities to
consider organising pre-admission preparation especially for science students
to build their entry capacity to meet the measure of what the universities were
looking for.
On the double track system, he said, within
the context of the escalated enrolment, it was the best intervention that could
be used in the sense that it helped to manage the problem of accommodation and
also cost effective.
“But for the introduction of the double track,
Government would have spent GH 1.3billion managing the increase in enrolment, but
because of the double track, government will spend GH323million”.
Prof Oduro also lauded the free SHS initiative
as it had brought relief to parents and enhanced enrolment, but said it was not
equitable enough.
“If the principle was to ensure that all monetary
barriers are removed to allow everybody gain accesses to SHS, then for the sake
of equity, concentrate on those who really need the help. So you can save money
to equip the handicap schools,” he said.
Professor Nana Afia Opoku-Asare from the Department
of Education, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), also
urged the universities to tap into the resources of their professional
non-teaching staff in specific areas.
She said universities must take advantage of
the available technology to develop modules that would help decentralize
timetables, in order to have an even distribution of lecture theatres for the
growing population of students.
She said government should also provide
technological support for the distance module of learning in the universities,
as this could serve as an alternative for the huge number of students that
would be admitted into the universities in 2020.
Professor Samuel K. Hayford, Dean, Faculty of
Education, University of Education, Winneba (UEW), admonished government to
heed to the suggestions from the academia and ensure that right decisions were
made with regards to the implementation of the free SHS and its associated
challenges.
He was also of the view that Government must
develop strategies such as the expansion of infrastructure, whilst an efficient
monitoring system must be put in place to allow the universities meet the needs
of their students.
GNA