Dr. Christopher Yartey Akwaa-Mensah, the Registrar of University of Education, Winneba, has appealed to the government to exempt the universities from the employment freeze to help reduce the stress on lecturers.

He said the present situation where a lecturer handled a class of between 300 and 400 students was making it increasingly difficult to teach, give exercises, mark and submit reports.

He made the appeal through the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a matriculation ceremony held for sandwich students at the University's College of Technology Education in Kumasi.

A total of 1,648 students have been admitted by the College to pursue various postgraduate and undergraduate programmes.

Dr. Akwaa-Mensah said they had also been constrained by the embargo on increasing students’ intake.

He again called for the refurbishment of the University’s laboratories and workshops to ensure effective teaching and learning to move the nation forward.

Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, the Vice-Chancellor, reminded the students that “university education is not meant to make them know everything” but to equip them with skills to enable them find solutions to problems and be reasonably independent in their thinking.

“As a University, our aim is not to help you acquire certificates or degrees for good jobs or enhanced positions at your workshops. Our aim is to help you to be independent, to be able to adopt positive attitude to life, be conscious of the value of time, and be sincere to yourself and society.”

He told them that they were in an institution that had a mission to nurture teaching and administrative competencies at the various levels of the educational system, and urged them to take their studies seriously.

Prof Asabere-Ameyaw encouraged the students to make sure that they integrated academic excellence with moral uprightness as they pursued their programmes.