Prioritise spending on education, research - Govt told
The government has been called upon to prioritise spending on education and research if it wants to address the social, political, environmental and economic problems currently facing the country.
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“The rising trend of youth unemployment around the world threatens not just current economic growth but also political stability and potential demographic dividend”.
The Vice Rector of the Pentecost University College, Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, made the call last Saturday when the first batch of 60 students of the Graduate School of Governance and Leadership (GSGL) of the Almond Institute (AI) graduated with Master’s degrees in Business Administration (MBA), Graduate Diploma in Management (GDM) and Graduate Certificate in management (GCM) in Accra.
The Almond Institute is affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Australian Institute of Business (AIB).
Government to support
Prof. Omane-Antwi, who is also the Chair of the Court of Governors of the Almond Institute, therefore, called on the government to support private institutions through logistic support such as laboratory equipment, computers, vehicles, as well as tax waivers, as they played a major role in the training of the youth.
He said “in a socially, economically, religiously and culturally diverse state like Ghana, higher educational institutions and universities imparting education and conducting cutting-edge research are the central mechanisms that can help and sustain social and economic infrastructure of the country”.
Prof. Omane-Antwi said education should be seen as an investment for the future of the country and added that the quality of education at every stage should be improved to help lay a solid foundation for the country’s economic growth and development.
Speaking on the theme of the graduation: “MBA Education and Accelerated National Development in Digital World”, Prof. Omani-Antwi called on the graduating students to be catalysts in the development of the country.
He called on them to bear in mind that in this digital age, ideas and aspirations respected few boundaries. He also said information and communication technology (ICT) had become enablers of change through innovation and creativity.
The Minister of State in charge of Public Sector Reforms Mr Alhassan Azong, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South, commended the Almond Institute and the Australian Institute of Business for their role in creating quality workforce for the country’s development.
He said concious and concerted efforts in educating the youth would help in developing people who could transform the national development agenda.
International collaboration
A representative from AIB, Dr J. Barry Ritchie, who presented certificates to the MBA graduates, said AIB had alumni in more than 90 countries and teaching centres in more than five countries and nine locations.
As a global institute, the AIB, he said, was committed to delivering courses which were work-applied, accelerated, accessible, affordable and fully accredited.
The Australian High Commissioner, Mr Andrews Barnes, said the partnership between the AIB and AI signified a deepening relations between Ghana and Australia.
He was hopeful that knowledge and skills acquired by the students would propel the country’s development agenda in the near future.
For his part, the President of Almond Institute, Bishop Gideon Titi-Ofei, said the National Accreditation Board (NAB), in 2014, approved the collaboration between AI and AIB to provide globally ranked 12-month MBA.
He said for any MBA to contribute to accelerated national development, it must be able to transform the vast human resource base of the country into highly productive human capital, meet the human capital needs of industries, meet global benchmarks in MBA education and must be ICT driven.
