Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - Government is negotiating with the authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to open a second law school in Kumasi.

It is also considering opening an LLB law programme at the University for Development Studies (UDS) to serve the needs of students in the Northern Sector who are desirous of pursuing the course. The move is aimed at easing the pressure on the Ghana Law School at Makola in Accra, which remains the only institution that offer the Barrister at Law programme.

Vice President John Dramani Mahama announced this at the weekend during the 1st Congregation and Matriculation of the Pentecost University College, Ghana (PUC) at Sowutuom in Accra. Two hundred and seventy one (271) students graduated with various degrees in Accounting, Marketing, Human Resource and other academic disciplines while 760 students, made up of 462 males and 298 females, took the Oath of Matriculation to become students of the College. Mr Mahama said government was committed to expanding access to tertiary education, especially in critical areas such as science, engineering, petroleum, law, and oil and gas, since Ghana needed more human resources for accelerated development.

He expressed regret that despite efforts to expand access to tertiary education, a lot more qualified candidates were still unable to find placement at the public and private institutions. He therefore, called on private universities to operate the multi-campus-system of administration by establishing campuses at various cities and towns so that people did not have to come to the central campus to pursue their courses.

Mr Mahama also underscored the role of science and technology as well as technical and vocational education in the development of a country and expressed regret that despite its benefits, admissions into the humanities at tertiary institutions had always outstripped those courses.

He said although government considered as important, the requests by private tertiary institutions for assistance from the Ghana Education Trust Fund, such appeals would only be granted in the area of capacity building to help the schools to produce graduates in specialized fields where the country faced shortage of human resource. Mr Mahama said government would continue to support and encourage collaboration between the state and the private tertiary institutions for the development of the country.

He challenged private tertiary institutions to explore cost cutting measures to ensure that their fees were low and affordable. Acknowledging that private tertiary education was expensive, the Vice President said government's policy was to work for achieving equity in access to quality education for all.

"We therefore cannot afford a situation where access to quality education is available only to the highest bidder," he said. Mr Mahama advised the graduates to respect ethical values in their approach to work; adding that sound education was not only meant to impart knowledge and skills but also encompassed the training and inculcation of ethics relevant to the progress of the nation. "It is for this reason that the theme for this graduation: 'Building human capacity with integrity for national development' is most appropriate and timely particularly so, in the wake of the deteriorating moral standards and values that are eating deep into the fabric of our society," he said.

Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education, announced that government would in the next two years, establish two additional universities in Ho in the Volta Region and the Brong Ahafo Region to pursue courses in the sciences to drive the country's industrialisation agenda.

Mr Tettey-Enyo also advocated the pursuance of distance learning programmes as a means to solving the infrastructural problem facing tertiary institutions.

Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, Council Chairman of the PUC called for a computerized system of selecting and admitting students into tertiary institutions to prevent the current situation, where state universities only selected the "cream and leave the rest for private universities". He asked the government to provide scholarships, grants and other bursaries to private tertiary institutions to enhance academic activities.

The PUC, an affiliate of the University of Ghana, was accredited in 2003 and now has more than 2,000 student population. 4 Oct. 09