'Labour agitations impact on academic work'
The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Education (UEW), Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, has called on the government to be more proactive in finding solutions to labour agitations.
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That, he noted, would prevent protracted industrial unrests and their attendant negative consequences.
Speaking at the 17th congregation of the university held in Kumasi for its distance education students in the northern sector of the country, last Saturday, he said the recent labour agitation by senior non-academic staff of the university in relation to their placement on the single spine salary structure had a toll on academic and administration work .
For the first time in the history of UEW, the number of female students graduating after the distance education programme exceeded that of males.
Out of the 11,038 students that graduated, 6,233 (56.48 per cent) were females while 4,803 (43.52 per cent were males).
They undertook Master’s, Bachelor’s and Diploma degree programmes.
Touching on the expansion programme of UEW, he said the university was considering the admission of senior high school leavers to its distance education programme, provided they met the minimum entry requirements.
Over the years the university had restricted its distance education to serving teachers.
Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw also stated that the university would soon transform its distance education centre at Techiman into a College of Distance Education with a principal as the head. It would, therefore, become the nerve-centre of distance education in UEW.
He also announced that the university had converted the postgraduate diploma programme in mentorship to a Master of Education programme by distance mode and the first batch of students would be admitted in the 2013/2014 academic year.
He expressed gratitude to the government and GETFund for their continued financial support to the university, but appealed to the government to step up the momentum to enable them address challenges confronting the school.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Yaw Adusei, commended UEW for continuously expanding access to its courses for many people, including the working class.
He stressed the need for the institution to introduce more career-specific courses and programmes to enable more workers improve their level of education.
Mr Adusei commended the graduating students for their hard work and expressed the hope that they would utilise the knowledge they had acquired to develop the nation.