The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum is appealing to the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to begin to prioritize its impacts on the neighboring and branch centers within communities across the country.
According to the Minister, it is about time UCC implements Neighbourhood Academic Initiatives across all its communities especially to amplify the need for school children to take their studies seriously.
It would be recalled that during the launch of the UCC at 60-anniversary celebrations in April 2022, Dr. Adutwum emphasized the importance of school children taking their studies seriously.
He urged the faculty of UCC to volunteer and visit basic schools in Cape Coast to encourage pupils to strive hard in their studies.
He highlighted that such visitations by faculty would imprint on the minds of school children to work towards becoming like them in the future, and would serve as a reminder of the benefits of education.
In that regard, the Minister in August 2022 presented a 66-Seater Bus to UCC to enable it achieve this mandate.
Reiterating the need for the university to continue in this, he emphasized that the time has come for UCC to implement the Neighborhood Academic Initiatives.
This, he believes will help with the vision of Ghana’s Transformational Agenda of the Education Sector and also aid in poverty eradication.
He made this passionate call on the University during the commissioning of the College of Distance Education (CoDE) Training Resort and Conference Centre at Agona Nyakrom in the Central Region on Friday, June 23, 2023.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, however, noted that this can be achieved through a partnership between the University of Cape Coast and the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The Education Minister further appealed to UCC to reflect on its distance Education Programmes to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
“Let us strengthen the rhythm of our distance education programmes. This is a beautiful facility and if it is going to offer any courses beyond using this facility as a training center, make sure you improve the quality of teaching and learning so that when they enter our classroom, they will also do their best for us” he said.
The Scope of the Training Resort and Conference Centre
The Training Resort and Conference Center consists of 162 standard bedrooms, 16 executive bedrooms, 10 seminar rooms, and one large conference room.
Auxiliary facilities in the project include shops, indoor recreational rooms, a kitchen, a servery, a restaurant, and an outdoor multi-purpose recreational court.
There is also a caretaker’s apartment, a 2-bedroom semi-detached house with a kitchen, living and dining area, visitors’ washrooms, entrance porch, and outdoor areas in each detached house.
Drivers’ lounge, self-contained 8 bedroom with living/dining area, entrance porch, washing room, visitor’s washroom, and kitchenette.
The fully air-conditioned newly built Training Resort and Conference Centre will serve as a marking resort for lecturers in the College of Distance Education (CoDE-UCC) where they will meet for residential marking of students’ exams as well as training of postgraduate students, and for other retreats of the university when required.
According to the Vice Chancellor of UCC, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the project has come at an opportune time as universities worldwide strive to produce useful global citizens by practically inculcating twenty-first-century skills in their trainees.
He adds that the establishment of the centre aligns with his vision of repositioning UCC as a global hub of creative thinkers, offering demand-driven programmes, integrated practical entrepreneurship courses, and actively translating the product of innovative research for sustainable development.
The Vice-Chancellor notes that what the center seeks to do is to create a nitch by providing quality, equitable and inclusive education that empowers graduates to be independent, life long learners, and responsible citizens who have a passion for job creation by contributing to public service.
He said the center also symbolizes the university’s commitment to holistic education, industry, and sustainable development adding that it is a testament to the university’s unwavering dedication to academic excellence, research innovation, and community engagement.
To this end, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong revealed that the citing of the multi-purpose facility at Agona Nyakrom is the first step in bringing the University of Cape Coast’s vision of an all-inclusive education, and community service to the doorstep of the people of Agona Nyakrom traditional area.
He assured the people and chiefs of Agona Nyakrom of the university’s vision to add to the facility to make it suitable for running various programmes as a satellite campus of UCC, especially in health and allied programmes.
On his part, the paramount chief of Agona Nyakrom, Okofo Okatakyi Nyarko Eku X expressed his satisfaction with the project and appealed to UCC to fulfill its promise to fully develop the 50-acre land it handed over to UCC for the commissioned project and similar ones so the place becomes a full academic center.
ICYMI: UCC Commissions its newly built training and Conference Centre at Agona Nyakrom
Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
