According to Professor Yankah, the stress and difficulties private universities go through will be a thing of the past because government is taking steps to liberate them from the “oppression” they have suffered for so long.

He was speaking on Thursday during his send-off party as former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Central University College (CUC) at the New Senate Room, CU.

[contextly_sidebar id=”R7xKdGB8S24QWyTp34zXMLS4VxhxkgEg”]Professor Yankah observed that the attempt to set the private universities free “was a narrative that started whilst I was VC of the CUC”, adding that, “the experiences I went through were the experiences of all private universities in Ghana, and so if I got the opportunity to be there, I should make a move that would be of importance and significance not just to CUC but to liberate all private universities from oppression.”

He reiterated government’s commitment to helping private tertiary education by offering  a 25% tax waiver to private universities saying “that waiver is one of the things that started right here when I was VC, and we pursued it vigorously.”

The Chancellor of the CUC, Dr. Mensa Otabil, thanked Professor Yankah for his service to the university, saying “he is a man of peace, a gentleman, a man I deeply enjoyed working with.”

He reminisced on their working relationship by saying “the plans we hatched, and how we waited through many difficulties in the light of this university, managing important decisions affecting student, faculty, and staff life, and prayed through the frustrating process of acquiring a charter.”

The VC of the CUC, Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, in appreciating the work of the former VC, observed the many achievements Professor Yankah chalked whilst with the CUC.

Among other things, he noted his role in instituting the Distinguish Lecture series that brought some significant people to the CUC podium, and the establishment of a Faculty Colloquia which helped galvanized research in the university.

Professor Puplampu also told of Professor Yankah’s role in launching a radio station for the School of Communication Studies of the CUC, and overseeing the review of the status of the University and its human resource situation.

He credited Professor Yankah with the opening of the Kumasi campus of the school and the construction of a befitting main gate for the Miotso campus and the acquiring of a presidential charter which made the CUC an independent institution.

As part of the CUC’s appreciation for the work done by Professor Yankah, he was immortalized into the school’s history after a block at the Miotso campus was named after him.

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Source: GNA

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Although the programme has already taken off, some school heads are yet to receive funding for first year students, who are beneficiaries of the policy.

There has also been a huge number of students who have gained admission to various schools but have challenges with placements.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ydJbxHYrc5ctFHhKrCueiLjDeWcSa7w0″]A former Trades Minister, Dr Ekow Spio Garbrah had also told Citi News that a lot of challenges are cropping up because the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government failed to properly plan for the programme’’s implementation.

But Professor Yankah disagreed. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Dr. Yankah insisted that “I don’t see these are problems that were not anticipated, we anticipated them.”

He assured that a number of measures are being put in place to address the challenges head on.

On accommodation and facilities for the High Schools, the deputy Minister said “a number of projects are underway to ensure that we enlarge and we put facilities in various secondary schools…We believe that the problems of capacity will be dealt with as we move and hobble along.”

He further assured that every challenge encountered within the implementation stage will certainly be fixed.

“The NPP government promised to start in the 2017 academic year, they have done, they could have just decided to wait till 2019, a year before the next election and decided to just throw in a fluke or red herring, attracted all the votes they would have wished and then left whatever problems and challenges that come in the wake of the new policy for any other government that care to continue but they said, wait, let’s just take off, there are bound to be glitches here and there.”

“Within a year or so, we probably think the glitches and challenges would have cured and then while we are in government we then fix the problem so that from the beginning and the end of the cycle it is NPP government. We will confront the challenges and fix them before if we are asked to leave the scene by the people, we do so.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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The Quiz Mistress Dr. Elsie Effah Kaufmann had her handbag containing cash, reading glasses, golden earrings, mobile phone and other valuables stolen on the climax of the 2017 competition after fans crowded the stage in celebration of the victory of Prempeh College.

Speaking at the 10th Congregation of the St Francis College of Education in Hohoe yesterday [Saturday], the Minister condemned the situation describing it as shameful and an anticlimax to a rather pulsating event.

“Good education, indeed academic brilliance is meaningless if it is not founded on good discipline and sound moral integrity. Whoever stole the handbag, with all its precious content should be ashamed; he may have enjoyed himself/herself with its cash content but only temporarily. He has devalued and disgraced his school, his college and undermined the dignity of education in senior high school” he stated.

He has therefore placed a bounty on the missing bag to reward anyone that knows its whereabout.

“And I use this medium to urge any student or anybody who knows the whereabouts of the missing handbag, to please report this to Ministry of Education for a handsome reward.”

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By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He therefore urged students in the various campuses of the school to remain calm as the government works to address the problem.

Prof Yankah also told new and continuing students of the University “to stay hopeful that there is not as much cause for alarm as they originally thought”.

[contextly_sidebar id=”X6c67qC58g5UllEueOLwkZLxcHTwpjjv”]He said he is very hopeful the Council will take the right decisions for calm to prevail for both administrators and students.

The Minister was briefing journalists today [Tuesday], after a higher level meeting with the University’s authorities, and the UEW chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).

The meeting, which lasted for over two hours, was a government initiative aimed at calming fears in the university over administrative and academic issues, as a court case between a private citizen, Supi Kofi Kwayera and the institution continues.

Prof. Yankah expressed government’s concern about the impasse which resulted from the absence of a governing council for the University, and has indicated the readiness of the government to expedite the reconstitution of a new council in the coming days to ensure stability in the University.

He noted that “there is the need for various Councils of the University which in the past several months have not been constituted to be constituted as soon as possible so that they bring all issues in perspective and then decide on what should happen”.

On what the soon to be constituted council would have to do in the immediate term, the Minister suggested that “they can decide to ratify or not to ratify some of the decisions taken by the previous council”.

He has also suggested that the incoming council could opt for an out-of-court settlement of the case currently pending in court, urging “the national interest and the interest of the students should be paramount”.

Many incoming, continuing and some past students of the University have been worried over what could happen to their various degree and diploma certificates issued from 2013 to date as the controversies over the lack of a governing Council continues.

However, the Minister of State has sought to calm them, saying, “Those who were expecting that the degree and diploma they have obtained will be nullified, let’s leave that to the Council.”

He added that, “whatever decision the new council comes out with, I am very optimistic that it will be in the interest of stability of education in the country”.

Prof Kwesi Yankah has again appealed to members of UTAG in the University to rescind their resolve to stay out of the lecture halls till the entire court case is over.

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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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