Prez Mahama asks UNESCO to help develop tourist sites
President John Dramani Mahama has affirmed the government's resolve to develop the country's heritage sites to attract more tourists into the country.
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He said it was important to preserve the heritage sites for posterity and also generate some income for the state.
He, therefore, urged the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and other international and local bodies to collaborate with the government in that venture.
President Mahama made the call yesterday during a courtesy call on him by the Director-General of UNESCO, Dr Irina Bokova, at the Flagstaff House in Accra yesterday.
Ms Bokova is in the country to hold discussion on education and science with ministers of state and other government officials.
Tourism is currently Ghana's third largest foreign exchange earner, after minerals and cocoa.
The tourist sites include castles and forts used during the slave trade and the Mole and Kakum national parks.
President Mahama said Ghana had a lot of heritage sites which were not fully developed.
"Tourism is another area that the government wants to collaborate with UNESCO. It will be useful for UNESCO to partner Ghana to increase tourist attraction in the country not only to earn income but also to preserve the sites for posterity,'' he said.
On education, the President said the government was bent on revamping technical and vocational education.
That, he said, would prepare the students to secure jobs easily on completion of their courses.
President Mahama said Ghana had made a lot of progress in the areas of education, health and infrastructure development.
He lauded the management of UNESCO for its support to Ghana over the years.
Ms Bokova commended Ghana for its economic growth and political stability.
She said Ghana was making progress in the delivery of quality education and science innovation.
She said the country's progress had inched it closer to achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals targets by 2015.
The UNESCO Director-General said her meetings with ministers of state had centred on how to promote innovation in science in schools.
In another development, Ms Irina Bokova has pledged the organisation’s commitment to help Ghana achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education, reports Naa Lamiley Bentil and Sarah Mensah, Accra
According to her, the country “was not in a position to achieve the MDGs on education”, saying that notwithstanding, UNESCO would continue to support the government to improve on the quality of education at the primary level.
Ms Bokova gave the pledge at a meeting with the Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, in Accra yesterday.
She said Africa was a young continent with many opportunities and, therefore, there was the need to invest in education, which was the basis for the development of every country, hence UNESCO’s support to Ghana to achieve its best in terms of education.
Prof. Opoku-Agyeman congratulated Dr Bokova on being the first woman to occupy the high office of Director-General of UNESCO.
She said the Ghana government was not relenting in its efforts at promoting good education for all, saying it was investing a lot in education by providing uniforms for pupils in the rural areas.
The minister expressed the commitment of her ministry to promote science and mathematics at the rural level.
By Musah Yahaya Jafaru