General News of Saturday, 2 April 2005

Source: GNA

Churches urged to help check indiscipline in schools

Akropong, April. 2, GNA - The Minister of Information, Mr. Dan Botwe, has emphasized the need for churches to help halt the recent spate of indisciplinary acts that had engulfed schools in the country. He noted that in the past, indisciplinary acts such as hooliganism and examination leakages were alien to the educational system in the country due to the discipline and respect for authority that was inculcated into students of religious institutions, adding that those academic excellence could be reverted to, to halt the situation. Mr. Dan Botwe, who was addressing a fund-raising ceremony in aid of the Presbyterian University College (PUC), Akuapem Campus, at Akropong-Akuapem on Saturday, noted that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), was famous for it's discipline and therefore, hoped that the university would be a channel through which the reverse of indiscipline would be championed for the benefit of the society.

He observed that the cost of formal education was very high and government alone could not provide all the infrastructure necessary for the growth of the educational sector to meet the increasing students seeking admission to higher institutions.

"The move by the Presbyterian Church to establish a University College is therefore seen by government as a positive step to enhance the goal of making education accessible to as many as possible", he stated.

Mr. Botwe reminded the people that the realization of the project within its time-frame was related to the extent of support it would receive from the congregation and urged all to support the establishment of the Akuapem campus generously.

The Principal of the PUC, Prof. Sraku Lartey, said the university would establish outreach centres at all its campuses to benefit the entire citizenry of the locations to achieve the objective of the PCG, raising the standard of people, everywhere they found themselves. He said the university's other campus at Abetifi in the Eastern Region, which had already taken-off, was offering courses in French, English, Akan, natural resources management, development studies, business administration and ICT.

According to Prof. Sraku Lartey, when the Agogo Campus takes-off, it would offer agricultural and medical science to complement the other universities in the country.

The Deputy Minister at the Office of the President, Mrs Mercy Bampoe-Addo, who represented the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nana Akuffo-Addo, noted that the motto of the university, "Discipline in leadership", could not have been more appropriate than in these era where indecency had become the order of the day in society.

She described the establishment of the Akuapem Campus was a step in the right direction because of the pioneering role of Akuapem in the church's history and in the establishment of educational institutions in the country.

Earlier in a welcoming address, the Akuapem Presbytery Chairman, Rev. Charles Ahwireng, said the establishment of the campus at Akuapem, was long overdue "because initially, the start of the university was scheduled for Akuapem but for lack of logistics it had to be passed on to Abetifi" and called on all descendants of Akuapem to support the project to a worthy level.

He said to enable the Akuapem Campus to take-off in October this year, the presbytery and the local implementation committee had so far spent 600 million cedis in relocating the Salem JSS and refurbishment of the classrooms into lecture halls and hoped to raise an amount of one billion cedis for the completion of the campus.

An appeal for funds at the function yielded 300 million cedis.