Accra, July 29, GNA - Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, on Thursday said the University could admit less than half of the over 20,000 applicants this academic year.

However, he said, some of the more than 10,000 applicants who would be left out could benefit from the university's programmes through the distance education centre under the University of Ghana Institute of Adult Education (IAE).

"To this end, we are working around the clock to ensure that by next year, the IEA as a whole will become a full fledged distance education centre to admit people outside the walls of the University to faculty programmes in a more effective and organized way," Prof. Asenso-Okyere said at the launch of the maiden book by the IEA since its inception in 1948.

The 241-page book entitled: "The Practice of Adult Education in Ghana", was target students and practitioners of adult education as well as the general public, especially persons who seek to know about adult education in Ghana

It portrays some key areas in which adult education operates in the country, treating topics such as the university-based adult education, social context of adult education, nongovernmental organisations and adult education, adult education and women in Ghana, agricultural extension and rural development in Ghana, environmental education in Ghana as well as entrepreneurship development programmes.

Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, who launched the book, stressed the need for students who would not gain admission into the universities to make use of the distance learning system in the IEA.

She noted that IEA had contributed tremendously to national development through the various knowledge-sharing programmes such as the Easter and New Year Schools, as well as the Workers' Colleges it had established in all the Regions.

Ms Ohene noted that the IEA had had a chequered history characterized by its politicisation in the past, to train personnel who served the interest of a particular political party.

She urged the IEA to evolve an Adult Education Policy, saying: "If you evolve such a policy from the practitioners' point of view, I will add some political tone to it and push it though the necessary channel to become a national policy."

Mrs Kate Addo-Adeku, Acting Director of IEA, noted that the Institute had not been given its due recognition in the development programmes.

She said the Institute could be used as a channel for environmental sanitation education and for poverty reduction and wealth creation programmes.

She, therefore, called on the Government and state agencies to engage the IEA in the implementation of various programmes of national concern saying: "If the IEA is used we can be sure of success and some of the socio-economic problems facing our people would be a thing of the past."

Universities Press published the book with sponsorship from the Adult Education Association of the Federal Republic of Germany (GVV). The University of Ghana bought the first copy of the book for five million cedis. Other purchases during the auction sale ranged from 100,000 cedis to two million cedis.