Cape Coast, Feb. 26, GNA - The Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, has re-affirmed government's commitment to provide tertiary education institutions with resources for more improved quality and accessible tertiary education.

He said the government would continue to ensure that the country's educational system is repositioned to train the right kind of human capital needed for national and industrial development. This was in a speech read for him by Mr. Paul Effah, Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education at the "3rd Higher Education Fair" in Cape Coast on Thursday.

The three-day fair, organised by I-Texon Ghana, the Ministry of Education and the Oguaa Traditional Council, is on the theme "higher education, a must for the 21st century Ghanaian student". The objective of the fair is to bring senior high school students and teachers as well as parents and guardians into direct contact with higher education providers, career counsellors and other stakeholders to foster communication and promote growth.

It is also to enable the stakeholders to find solution to problems students face in seeking placement into higher education institutions and selecting career courses.

He said apart from producing the required human capital needed for development, quality education also helps in poverty alleviation and urged all to compliment government's efforts and strive to invest heavily in education to facilitate the speedy growth of the economy. The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, said advanced countries have fewer natural resources but it is their level of acquired knowledge that helped to develop them. She re-echoed calls on the public to embrace higher education for the benefit of the nation at large and lauded the efforts of the organizers of the fair for helping to bridge the information gap between educational institutions and students as well as other stakeholders.

The Chief Executive Officer of I- TEXON Ghana, Mrs Catherine Haizel, said the mission of the fair is to give both the public and private institutions the opportunity to sell their institutions to students due the frustration they go through during selection. She said some good programmes in most of the institutions are not pursued because applicants are not aware of their potentials as good career opportunities and that the fair would help them make informed choices. Mrs Haizel expressed the hope that corporate bodies and institutions would participate with sponsorship packages for the fair to be replicated in all the remaining regional capitals on yearly basis. The Omanhene of the Oguaa Traditional Area, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, said resources would only be useful if the people for which they are provided have knowledge on how to use them adequately. The Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Coast (UCC) Professor Naana Jane Agyemang who presided, described as "disturbing" the fact that students have become lazy due to the influx of remedial schools almost everywhere in the country and urged students to study hard while in school to avoid writing their examinations over again. She also stressed the need for students to be taught in their native languages as done in most advanced countries and therefore called on the ministry to come out with a native language policy. 26 02 10