Ms Christine Churcher, Minister of Basic and Girl Child Education, said that the government would ensure that quality education is spread to every corner of the country to bridge the gap between the rural and the urban levels in education.

She said tradition; economic situation, customs and beliefs have always favoured males over females.

Ms Churcher said this when board members of the Association of African Universities (AAU) called on her in Accra to discuss issues relating to tertiary education in the country.

The association is an international non-governmental organisation set up by universities in Africa to promote co-operation among themselves and between them and the international academic community.

The AAU, among its objectives, seeks to promote interchange, contact and co-operation among university institutions in Africa, promote co-operation among African institutions in curriculum development and in the determination of equivalence.

Ms Churcher said basic education should be given the needed attention to enable the goals of tertiary education to be achieved.

"We have realised that any tree that is not rooted properly cannot stand well," she said, adding that officials from the Ministry of Education are paying visits to all schools to acquaint themselves with their problems.

She said the team identified some of the problems as under-enrolment, malnourished children and lack of teaching staff.

Ms Churcher said to solve some of these problems, there should be special packages and incentives to motivate and entice teachers to accept postings to the rural areas to assist basic schools there.

"We can only talk of universities when the basic education has got a solid foundation".

She said there is no reason for the present African leaders to fail in that duty because they have the mistakes and experience of their predecessors to learn from and mentioned mistakes like wars, ethic conflicts and military coups.

Mr Rashid Bawa, Deputy Minister of Education, mentioned vocational, technical and training institutions as areas where the government was paying much attention to because they give skills to students to employ themselves.

Abdul Hamid Salami, Executive Secretary of AAU, said it is the apex organisation and principal forum for consultation, exchange of information and co-operation among universities in Africa.