Cape Coast, April 18, GNA - The Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Coast (UCC), on Monday, inaugurated a $40,000 ICT laboratory for the Centre for Continuing Education of UCC.

The laboratory, which was established with funds from the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), would be used by students pursuing the Master's in Education degree in ICT (M.ED ICT) at the Centre.

The inauguration coincided with the opening of a week's training workshop on the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA)/ UCC M.ED ICT Project.

A total of 12 participants, from Ghana, Uganda, Senegal, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso are attending the workshop sponsored by the University of Pretoria, South Africa in collaboration with UNESCO and the UCC. It is among others, aimed at training facilitators and ICT students pursuing their Master's Degree in Education, in Systems and Tools for Computer Application in Education (CAE) Authors, which is one of the modules the students are expected to cover in the M.ED programme. In an address, Rev Prof. Obeng, reiterated the government's determination to make human resource development the cornerstone of its developmental agenda.

He said this called for the training of educators to support the expansion of ICT training in the country's schools and universities. The UCC Vice Chancellor stressed the need for public and private sector collaboration in stepping up the introduction of ICT education. Rev Prof Obeng noted the importance of the Postgraduate Diploma in Distance Education (PGDDE) and the M.ED degree in ICT programmes being run by the UCC.

Due to inadequate infrastructure facilities, the UCC had identified distance education to increase access to university education, with ICT as a tool for achieving the university's objectives, Rev Prof Obeng said.

He said the UCC, needed personnel with high expertise in ICT education to support its distance education programme, and expressed the hope that the workshop, would among other things, address challenges such as providing professional development for effective technology use in education, promoting technology use in educational institutions and using technology to improve student achievement.

Professor Habtamu Zewdie, Director of the Project said UNESCO established the Project with its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1999, to provide capacity building in both Anglophone and Francophone speaking African countries, particularly, in teacher education.

He said the workshop, was one of a series at various sites the programme was being run and observed that, "technology has immense power in providing university education, while IICBA adds value to the university education".

Professor Kobina Yankson, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UCC, underscored the importance of distance education, which he said had come to stay and stressed the need to improve on the mode of delivery at the Centre. 18 April 05