The ninth National Delegates Congress of the Private Universities Students’ Association of Ghana (PUSAG) has ended with a call on government, particularly the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE), to rethink its position on Grade D7, which renders Senior High School graduates ineligible to enter university.
Professor Kwesi Yankah, President of the Central University College and Chairman of the Council of Independent Private Universities, who made the call in a key note address, said students who are graded D7 in various subjects are not failures.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vgIO3cewxcE9IlezB1jZ8byczWz65jbv”]Prof. Yankah emphasized the importance of leadership qualities over and above academic qualifications and urged students to be critical thinkers with little or no moral blemish, citing role models like John Mensah Sarbah and Dr Kwame Nkrumah who, he said, had passed the test of morality and self-denial and impacted future generations.
He condemned the political patronage of student leaders, saying it leads to the political manipulation of the entire student body, who end up losing their own voices in decision-making processes and handing it over to larger political interest groups.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, commended the out-going PUSAG executives for projecting genuine concerns in the interest of its members, as well as collaborating with the Ministry to address their challenges.
Mr Okudjeto Ablakwa, noted that the student movement had a great history in Ghana, where students play a vital role in the drafting of the 1992 Constitution, propose the Students’ Loan Trust Fund and the National Service Scheme, among others.
He pledged the support of Government and the Ministry of Education in assisting the various student groups in the country to achieve their objectives.
The President of PUSAG, Mr Mohammed Adams Sukparu, also debunked accusations levelled against PUSAG that it was asking government to put up projects on the campuses of private universities.
According to Mr Sukparu, PUSAG only asked government to roll out policies such as extending the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to private universities and drastically reducing the 25 per cent corporate tax levied on these universities.
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Source: ISD