Regional News of Monday, 1 March 2004

Source: GNA

Legon Computer Science Students Association Week Ends

Legon, March 1, GHA - A three-day Computer Science Students Association Week Celebrations of the University of Ghana which ended last Friday, was held at different places on and off-campus on the theme: "Harnessing the potentials of ICT for knowledge Creation and Sharing in Institutions of Higher Learning".

The celebration started with a Cyber Durbar on campus and was well attended by students, government officials, politicians and resource persons.

The Minister of Education, Kojo Baah Wiredu in a speech read on his behalf said, a draft national ICT framework in distance education has been developed by the government to provide quality education in the country at a cheaper cost.

According to the Minister, the draft policy is to help harness the ability of ICT for knowledge creation in the educational institutions, adding that as part of the 6th March Independence Anniversary, some companies and states have been invited to assess the ICT situation in the country.

In his speech, the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon and Chairman of the occasion, Mr. George Isaac Amoo expressed his dissatisfaction with the poor state of the laboratory at the computer science department of the University.

He promised to donate ten computers to the department and cautioned the students to avoid the use of the internet for negative purposes. At the ICT debate and forum on campus, the Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan ICT Centre and Patron of the Association, Madam Dorothy Gordon said Ghana could only be globally competitive if the Computer Science Department of the University is changed to the Faculty of Information Sciences, adding that the infrastructure base and equipment of the Department does not augur well for the development of ICT in Ghana.

She advised students in general and the Computer Science Department in particular to enrol at the institute and warned them of the competitive nature of the entrance examination. The week celebration's ended with an educational tour of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan ICT Centre.