Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Chief Executive of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, says leaders in Ghana lack the ambition to create momentous educational system and development programmes for the citizenry.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who played an instrumental role in the establishment of the National Cardiothoracic Centre in Accra, said Ghana’s development would depend on talented and motivated individuals, who would be at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation.

Addressing the 5th Congregation Ceremony of the Garden City University College, Kenyasi in Kumasi recently, the renowned heart surgeon opined that for innovation to succeed, every Ghanaian student should be given the opportunity to achieve their full potentials.

He spoke on the theme, “Developing the next generation of innovators-the role of Health Sciences” to address a large audience at the school where a total of 601 students graduated.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng described as poor the current system of recruiting students to pursue courses in the universities, especially in health sciences such as pharmacy and human medicine.

He maintained that all students must be given equal opportunities to excel since “health care is service mostly to the poor in the society.

“There are some individuals from rich homes who have not offered any service to anybody before, but who because of their exposure to good education have the chance to study health sciences,” he said.

In his view, students from less-endowed communities, who may not have had good grades, probably would be best suited to study health sciences so they can offer services that come naturally to them.

On her part, Dr. Wilhelmina J. Donkor, who represented the President of the University College, advised the graduands not to be impervious to criticisms or be blinded by complacency.

She appealed to the government to take a second look at the law on GETFund beneficiaries and include private universities.

“Most private tertiary institutions are owned by churches, individuals, who have come together as a group or single ownership such as GCUC, and for that matter, funding is mainly from contributions of these individuals and collection of school fees,” she said.

In line with this, she said, GCUC tends to offer full cost recovery.

This notwithstanding, Dr. Wilhelmina J. Donkor said the school charges moderate fees, which are sometimes even lower than those of public tertiary institutions that are fully supported by the State.

“This situation will remain for the foreseeable future due to the laws of the country for example, the law on the beneficiaries of the GETFund,” she opined.