Report
of the Portfolio Committee on Education on Study Tour to
A.
INTRODUCTION
The Portfolio Committee on Education having undertaken
a study tour to
A
Multi-Party delegation of five Members of the Portfolio Committee on Education
visited Mali and Ghana
On the
17-18 October 2005, the delegation visited Bamako , Mali Nelson Mandela
Primary School in Hippodrome in Bamako Nelson
Mandela Primary
School and the National School of Engineering, the delegation
was escorted by the Protocol Office to the airport in transit to Accra , Ghana
and stayed in Ghana
In
On the 19 October 2005, the delegation paid a courtesy call
on the High Commissioner, Mr. Rapu Molekane; A courtesy call on the First Deputy Speaker of
Parliament, Hon. Freddie Blay MP; observed the Public
Accounts Committee considering budgets of Departments, entities; paid a
courtesy call on Hon Minister of Education and Sports, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, MP; Held a meeting with Mr. Ato Essuman, Chief Director,
Ministry of Education and Sports and Mr. Michael Nsowah,
Acting Director General, Ghana Education Service. On the 20 October 2005,
visited Achimoto School; Met Mr. Paul Effah, Executive Secretary, National Council, Tertiary
Education; Visited Acting Chief Director of Regional Co-operation and NEPAD. On
the 21 October 2005, the delegation visited
B. DELEGATION
The delegation was led by the Chairperson of the Committee,
Prof Shepherd Malusi Mayatula
(ANC), accompanied by Ms Puleng Rosaline Mashangoane (ANC), Mr. Ben Mthembu
(ANC), Mr. George Gaolatlhe Boinamo
(DA), Mr. Alfred Mkhipeni Mpontshane
(IFP) and Mr. Steve Itumeleng Morometsi,
Committee Secretary.
C.
TERMS
OF REFERENCE
The
purpose of the study tour was to consult with the Ministers of Education and
Sport and consult on broad plans and goals of education. Visit universities and
assess their policies on access, funding, research and through put. Visit
schools and assess the school policies on free education, on exemption policies
on school fees, the prevalence and impact of HIV/AIDS on educators and teacher
development. The roles played with the realization of the Millennium Plan on
“Education for All”. Their role in incorporating the broad
framework of NEPAD in their education policies and the role of Parliamentarians
in Forum of African Parliamentarians in Education.
D.
FINDINGS
1.
COURTESY CALL ON
THE SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO
The delegation was welcomed by the High Commissioner Dr T Matshoma. He briefed the Members and focused on the
official opening of the office, trade relations between
With respect to any relations
between
He further indicated that the Embassy and the Malian
government had entered into a joint mission and had identified two Malian
officials who would be trained in English language at
A significant occasion occurred when the State President of
South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki visited
The SA-Mali project has been declared an official South
African Presidential Project and has been endorsed by the New Partnership for
Though the delegation had intended
to visit the
2.
COURTESY CALL ON
MALIAN MINISTER OF NATIONAL EDUCATION, HON. MR. MMADOU LAMINE TRAORE
The delegation arrived at the Malian
Ministry of National Education. They were welcomed by the Minister, the Hon,
Mr. Mamadou Lamine Traore, accompanied by Ms Senegai,
the Technical Advisor in the Minister’s office, Dr Kaute,
the Director-General of National Education and Mr. Djali,
the Communication Advisor in the office of the Minister. The leader of the
delegation introduced members of his team and explained the purpose of the
visit.
2.1 Single Ministry of Education
The Minister briefed the delegation and provided a broad
overview of the educational system in
In the first year of schooling learners are taught in
French and as they proceeded in their second year, they are taught in English.
Over a period of years, students are able to speak French and English fluently.
70% of children attended school and education is free.
Due to cultural resistance, parents
preferred to send boys to schools than girls. The reasons for that were based
on socio-economic and cultural reasons.
2.2 Types of Higher Institutions
of Learning
Two types of institutions exist in
the higher educational system from which students have a choice to
further their studies. The first is the
2.3 Prevalence of HIV/AIDS
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS pandemic
in schools is not as high as the rate of HIV/AIDS in the country as compared to
the Southern African Development Communities. There are educational programs in
place to address the effects of the virus.
2.4 Free Education
University education in
3.
WELCOME AND WORKING MEETING AT THE OFFICE OF THE RECTOR OF
The delegation was welcomed by the
Rector of the university, Ms Siby Ginette
Bellegarde, accompanied by members of the university
Council. The Rector briefed members and focused on the tuition fees, number of
registered students, number of faculties, access to university and
accommodation, registration of foreign students, academic development and
through-put.
3.1
The Rector reported that the
The student population in the last
semester was 32 000. In the current semester the numbers had increased with 10
000. The total number of students registered in the Faculty of Science School
is 12 000, made up of 10 000 in the Pharmacy and 2 000 in the Medicine Schools.
3.2
Faculties
The
3.3
Gender Equity
The social stereotype and resistance
from the communities with regard to women participation played itself out at
It has been reported that issues of
gender equality has not been as high at universities as it is at schools. As
women proceed further with tertiary education, the women participation is very
low at administration and at management level except at high school level. This
is mainly caused by a lower number of women who passé their High School
Diploma. Those who manage to pass their High School Diploma proceed to study
for another four-year tertiary education, are often get high positions in the
private sector.
3.4
Budget of the University
The university receives its budget
from the Department and 5% from tuition fees. The budget received is used for
equipment, and is usually not enough. A student who did not get a bursary &
succeeds to second year automatically gets a bursary. The budget for salaries
and administration is derived from a special fund set aside for maintenance.
Each year after students have passed their High School Diploma, the office of
the Minister compiles a list of those who have obtained good grades and
satisfied the minimum requirements to be provided with a scholarship to study
further.
3.5
Scholarship
The scholarship that each student
receives amounts to R26 500, which covers 100% of the fees. About 50% of the
bursary is often allocated to students who have obtained good grades and
staying far from the university. There are some of students who are provided
for by their parents. The budget that is
allocated to the university is often not sufficient to cover for administration
and maintenance. Thus the Minister has set aside a special fund that is used as
contingency to cover for administration and maintenance of equipments.
3.6
Foreign Students
The
university accepts foreign students and most of them are enrolled with the
Faculty of Sciences for Medicine and Engineering. Their registration fees costs
between R200 000-250 000 CDs. The university makes provision to accommodate
student on residences. The increasing number of current and foreign students
the university is impacting on the institutional infrastructure.
3.7
Student Residences
The residential facilities are in
most cases are not enough to accommodate all students. This situation forces
students to share rooms; six students often share the double rooms. In order to
deal with this challenge, the university admits between 2-3% of students into
residences.
3.8
Academic Development
The institution does not have clear
mechanisms to develop academics at the university. However most professors have
received training in
3.9
Internet Facility
The university started Internet
Centre to train them Internet and to enable them to conduct research.
3.10
Business Programs
The university does not
have Business school programs, but offers professional programs through the
Faculty of Science and Technics.
3.11
Challenges facing the university
·
Lack of adequate professors;
·
Lack of infrastructure
·
Lack of equipments
The University requested the
Committee to assist in establishing partnerships with South African
universities. The partnerships are aimed at encouraging student exchange
programs and to develop Indigenous African languages.
4.
VISIT TO THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGES, LITERACY, ARTS AND HUMAN
SERVICES,
At the Faculty of Languages, Literacy, Arts and Human
Sciences (FLASH), the Vice-Principal Mr. Berthe’Salif
welcomed the delegation. He briefed the delegation around courses that are
offered at the Faculty, the composition of staff and academics, the total
number of students.
4.1 Faculty of Languages,
Literacy, Arts and Human Sciences
The Faculty of Languages, Literacy, Arts and Human Sciences
falls under the
All students are expected to learn
one national language of their choice in addition to English. In order to address the shortage of
Professors specializing in Linguistic, the faculty imports external Professors
from
4.2
Structure of FLASH
FLASH has 52 staff members who
occupy the Administration and Technical Division, performing secretarial and
technical tasks. It was reported that in the previous semester the number of
students was standing at 11 500. The student intake for 2005/06 is expected to
increase by 5 000. In the beginning, FLASH operated as a Professional
institution specializing in Science and Technical courses.
4.3
Academic Staff
The academic staff
of FLASH is made up of 139 academics, of which 134 are men and 5 are women. The
institution has committed itself to address the gender imbalances.
4.4
Foreign Students of FLASH
The institution admits foreign students from
4.5
Challenges facing the institution
The major challenge facing the
institution is the large number of foreign students seeking admission. The
university took a decision to accept only students with High School Diplomas
for enrolment. The delegation left to visit the Faculty of Science and Technics of University of Bamako.
5.
VISIT TO THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNICS
The Vice-Dean, Prof Soulaymane Traore, welcomed the
delegation and gave an overview of courses offered, the duration of study, the
number of registered students, the number of academics and staff compliments.
He also highlighted on the total number of Doctorates obtained and the
countries in which academics were trained. The Faculty offers Science,
Chemistry and Mathematics. The Faculty is made up of 80 permanent and 150
part-time academics. There are 2 042 students registered with 60 staff members
who provide administrative and technical support. Out of the 80 permanent
academics, 50 have obtained their Doctorate Degrees and studied and trained in
countries such as
6.
VISIT TO
At
6.1 First Cycle Education System
The delegation interacted with a
first cycle classroom, a group of learners ranged from 9-11 years. The
classrooms are overcrowded. All subjects are taught in Bambara,
which is the official mother tongue, and English as a second language.
6.2 Second Cycle Education System
The delegation interacted with learners in a Grade 9
classroom. The class had 87 learners which, the delegation was told, was one of
those with a fewer number of learners. It was said that classrooms are often
filled with a maximum of 100 learners.
When a learner passes his/her exams, he/she is issued with a Diploma and
proceeds to Secondary level. Subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Geography
and French are offered at the school. The number of learners enrolled in the
second cycle was 400 learners. The number of teachers teaching second cycle was
11. Out of the 11 teachers, only 1 is a female teacher. The school has got a
School Governing Body (SGB) that oversees parents and teachers. The SGB is
actively involved in the management of the school.
7.
VISIT TO THE
The delegation visited the
In order to differentiate between
the different schools, each school is named using the letters of the alphabet,
such as school A or B. The School A has 450 learners with 6 teachers, out which
4 were Males and 2 Females. The Educators teaching at the Middle School were
provided with special training courses. As a symbol of friendship between the
Japanese and Malian schools, both entered into establishing a twinning
programme.
Since 1980 the school had
experimented in giving lessons in Bambara. A
concerted effort was made this year to teach the language from Grades 1-6. As
an experiment, all learners in Grade 5 are taught in Bambara.
Learners are divided into small groups and are encouraged to work as a
team. It has been observed that since
the introduction of Bambara at the school, the
numbers of learners had decreased because some parents had removed their
children from the school.
7.1 CONCERN RAISED BY
MANAGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL
Due to the popularity of the school in the area, Management
reported that they were promised by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to keep
contact with them and consider the possibility of assisting them. They
requested the Committee to take up the matter with the Foundation.
7.2
COMMITTEE’S UNDERTAKING
The Committee undertook to make a
follow-up on the commitment made by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to assist in
building additional classes at the school.
With regard to offering subjects in
the mother tongue, the Committee requested that Management provide them with a
copy of statistics on the results of the exams taken in Bambara.
8.
VISIT TO NATIONAL
The Rector of the National School of Engineering and
members of the Academic Council welcomed the delegation. The Rector briefed
members of the delegation and provided an overview of the programmes
offered at the school. The briefing was followed by a tour of the school and
some of the laboratories.
8.1 Technical Colleges
The
·
Civil
Engineering Unit specializing in training students to become engineers.
·
Industrial Engineering Division specializing in electronics,
mechanics, and energy.
·
Mathematics Division specializing in Mathematics
·
Department of Geology specializing in mining related
matters.
8.2
Level of Entry
In order to be accepted at the National School of
Engineering, a student is required to have studied for 2 years at university, and for another 3 years at the Engineering
school before one can qualify as an engineer. The institution has accepted 400
students with an academic staff compliment of 100. There are
about 80 staff members employed on permanent basis and 20 are employed on a
part-time basis. Out of the 80 permanent academic staff, 3 are women. The
number of women academic staff is only 3; the reason provided for the low
number of women academics was that families do not allow girls to study for
technical subjects. An
average of 80% of students complete their studies and graduate.
8.3
Virtual University
The delegation visited two classes,
one was a virtual university class and another was a computer networking class.
The virtual university offered video conferencing classes electronically
through the Canadian university. For admission into the virtual university
classes, students should have done and passed for 2 years at university.
Based on the performance of the student, they are selected electronically, and
then they submit an application to the Canadian university for admission. The
admission fee to study costs R200 000 CDs. The class had 27 students, 17
were English speaking and 10 were French speaking. The second class the
delegation visited was a computer networking class where students studied
computer-networking systems. To specialize in computer networking a student is
required to have 1-year basic knowledge in computer science.
9.
STUDY TOUR TO
On the
18 October 2005, the delegation arrived in Accra , Ghana
9.1
COURTESY CALL ON HIGH COMMISSIONER MR RAPU MOLEKANE AT THE
HIGH COMMISSION OFFICE,
On the 19 October 2005 the delegation paid a courtesy call
to the office of the High Commissioner, Mr. Rapu Molekane. He warmly received the members of the delegation
and welcomed them to
The Commissioner told the delegation that the office was
opened in 1996. In 2004 the New Patriotic Party was voted into power replacing
the National Democratic Congress. Free Basic Education was introduced together
with the new national uniform of brown and yellow. The relation between
The joint bi-laterals on Agricultural matters would be
launched before the end of the year. Except the avoidance of taxation
agreement, the two countries had general trade on aviation matters on a
commercial basis. An unofficial exchange programme
exists between
25 South African companies are in
9.2
COURTESY CALL ON THE FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT, HON
FREDDIE BLAY
The delegation visited the First
Deputy Speaker of Ghana Parliament and was profoundly welcomed by the two
Deputy Speakers to Parliament. The Chairperson introduced members of the
delegation and provided an overview on the purpose of the visit by the
Committee.
The briefing focused around a broad exposition of the
Educational System in
The country also experienced the
brain drain phenomenon. To retain educators, the government is moving towards
implementing a Human Development Programme with emphasis on Science and
Technology.
The delegation was allowed to
observe the proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee when they were
examining the audited accounts of the Departments and entities. The
establishment of the Public Accounts Committee is provided under Order 151 (2)
of the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana. The Order 165 (1) of the
Standing Orders provides that the Committee shall consist of not more than 25
Members under the Chairperson of a Member who does not belong to the party,
which controls the Executive branch of Government. Accordingly, and by
convention, the Leader of the Main Opposition Party of the House has always
chaired the Committee. The primary responsibility of the Committee is to
examine the audited accounts of sums granted by Parliament to meet the public
expenditure of the Government, and such other accounts before Parliament. In
terms of it functions, the Committee has the powers, rights and privileges of a
High Court or a Justice of the High Court.
The Heads under which the
Auditor-General reports to Parliament are as follows:
·
Foreign Exchange receipts and payments of the Bank of Ghana;
·
The District Assemblies Common Fund;
·
The District Assemblies and Traditional Councils;
·
Public Boards and Corporations;
·
Pre-University Educational Institutions;
·
The Ministries, Departments and other Agencies of the
Central Government and
·
The Consolidated Fund.
The delegation was further taken
around the buildings of Parliament where they observed the old
The challenge facing the Parliament
of Ghana is that there are no Committee rooms and that Members do not have
offices. There is no dedicated research support for the Members. To convene a meeting, parties make use of
lobbies. In order to address the shortfall of offices, the State House for the
government department of housing will be converted to offices for all Members
of Parliament.
9.3
COURTESY CALL ON HON. MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND SPORTS, MR
YAW OSAFO-MAAFO, MP
The Acting Director General Mr
Clark welcomed the delegation and took them to the office of the Hon Minister
of Education and Sports, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo. The
Minister briefed the delegation on the Educational System in
It was reported that, currently
9.2.1 Primary Education
The primary education, which covers
6 years after kindergarten, it is aimed at consolidating the knowledge and
skills acquired at the kindergarten level and forms as the foundation for
inquiry, creativity and innovation and inculcates good citizenship in children.
In terms of the report of “Education
in the 21st Century”, it is recommended that at
Primary Education level emphasis should be on literacy, numeracy
and problem-solving skills. The creative arts is comprised of, art and craft,
music and dance, physical education and ICT. The educators are encouraged to
offer the subjects as practical and creative activities. Those children whose
first home language is
9.2.2
The
9.2.3 Senior Secondary/Technical
/Vocational Education
The Secondary education is provided
at Senior Secondary Schools, technical/vocational institutes and through
apprenticeship schemes. The curriculum at this level is diversified to cater
for the different aptitudes; abilities, interests and skills of students
provide some with the opportunity for further education and training while
others are introduced to a wide variety of relevant occupational skills.
To address the issue of developing the Technical,
Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sub-sector as alternative parallel
stream, the government should make a major shift in its state education policy
in favour of the TVET sub-sector. The Technical
Teacher Training facilities at the University College of Education of Winneba,
9.2.4 Tertiary Education
The tertiary education embraces
various types of post-secondary education programmes that offer training
leading to the award of Diploma and /or Degree. There is one National Minister
with three Deputy Ministers. Tertiary
education includes universities, polytechnics, and specialized institutions.
Tertiary students receive loan funding through means tests. The state is
finding it difficult to recover loans from student who have completed their
studies.
To address problems of access, funding, staffing, quality
and relevance, the government should improve and expand significantly academic
and physical infrastructure and facilities in all state tertiary institutions
to enable them to deliver at optimum capacity. The working conditions,
including facilities for research and teaching should be improved to attract
and retain staff. The tertiary
institutions should set up well-resourced quality assurance units to monitor
academic and professional programmes in the
institutions. Also the universities should liaise with industry and business to
set up standards of competencies for skills acquisition.
The objective is to create an
intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically well-balanced
individuals with the requisite knowledge, skills, values and aptitudes for
self-actualization and for the socio-economic and political transformation of
the nation, and the Government of Ghana.
10.
MEETING MR ATO ESSUMAN CHIEF DIRECTOR, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
AND SPORTS AND MR. MICHAEL NSOWAH, ACTING
The delegation was welcomed by the
Acting Director General Mr. Michael Nsowah at the
10.1 Management at the School level
The school is the primary unit of
management headed by the principal who handles all the management issues. The
principal is supported by a number of agencies, including the School Management
Committee (SMC), Board of Governors and the PTA. The class teacher on his/her
part provides leadership in the management of the day-to-day teaching and
learning environment.
10.2 Circuit level
At the circuit level, the Circuit
Supervisor is in charge of the Circuit, which consists of a cluster of schools,
numbering between ten and twenty depending on the area of operation.
10.3
Regional level
The Regional Directorate of
Education is responsible for the co-ordination, supervision and monitoring of
the management functions of the District, Directorates of Education and
Regional Education units in order to ensure good quality education in schools.
10.4 Ministry of Education
At the ministerial level, the
Ministry of Education, as the body charged with formulating educational
policies, has the responsibility for ensuring that educational policies and
their implementation harmonize with national developments.
10.5 The school organization
The current system of 6 yrs primary;
3 yrs junior secondary and 3 yrs senior secondary will change in 2007 to 2 yrs
pre-primary; 6 yrs primary; 3 yrs JSS and 4 yrs SSS. From this year, levies
have been abolished and the government pays capitation.
10.6
Teacher training
The rural areas are faced with a
problem of untrained teachers. These teachers are given on the job training
through the “Untrained Teachers Programme. There are 38 teacher-training
colleges in
11.
Challenges
§
Inability of teachers to go to rural schools.
§
Low teacher salaries.
§
HIV/AIDS pandemic.
12. VISIT TO
The delegation visited
The school is divided into four programmes
namely, General Science, Creative Arts, Vocational and Visual Arts and General
Agriculture. The total number of learners was approximately 1 585, with
proximately 80 staff members. The learners pay levies, which covers school
fees, boarding, and food. The continuous assessment of learners continues every
term and that had an effect on acceptable discipline. The final year exams are
common throughout
13.
MEETING WITH ACTING VICE-CHANCELLOR,
The delegation visited the
Recently the university participated
in the Peer Review Programme. The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic
Research was requested by the Governing Council of the African Peer Review
Mechanism APRM-Ghana to undertake studies into socio-economic development in
Currently the
The residential fee is approximately $850 and the students
are highly subsidized. The real cost is 8-10 times what students paid. They
depended on the government for intervention to operate fee-paying students. The
university had administered foreign students according to the Strategic Plan
2001-2010. A policy is in place to encourage access in output looking with
interacting with external bodies. Female access had positive spin offs. The aim
is to increase the 3% number of female in admission policies. By this mechanism
or policy the institution want to increase the population of female to close to
43,4%. The institution is working towards getting
female population to an acceptable numbers.
As a way of increasing the number of females, the admission
policy, developed a cut off point for women lower to that for men in
mathematics. In every year, a Science and Maths
workshop for girls is conducted to encourage young women and this year boys
were also included.
The courses in Maths and Science are
very critical for the development of female students. The university has
established a Regional Centre for Science Education for female learners.
It has a registered intake 30 000
students and this poses problems for residential accommodation as the
institution is modeled along the
The institution has exchange
programmes mostly with European Universities. There are considerations to have
relations with other South African Universities.
14.
MEETING WITH MR. PAUL EFFAH, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NATIONAL
COUNCIL ON TERTIARY EDUCATION
Mr. Paul Effah, who briefed
members and focused on the core values of the Council, the establishment of the
Council and its objectives, welcomed the delegation. The National Council for
Tertiary Education’s values stem from its coordinating role which requires it
to be visionary, efficient, professional, objective and unbiased in its
dealings with all its constituents. The Council will strive to treat all
stakeholders with equity and respect without ever compromising its
responsibility to the sub-sector and to the nation. In advising the Minister
and other stakeholders, the Council must remain objective and free from any
external influence.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana
mandates for the establishment of a number of bodies. Amongst those is the
National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), established by an Act of
Parliament, Act 454 of 1993. The Act enjoins the Council; to advise the
Minister on the development of institutions of tertiary education in
The Act allows for recommendations
on national standards and norms including standards and norms on staff, costs,
accommodation and time utilization for approval of the Minister and to monitor
the implementation of any approved national standards and norms by
institutions.
Further more it seeks to advise
Governing Councils of institutions of tertiary education on suitable measures
for generating additional funds for their institutions. Key to the action plan
of the NCTE is to create attractive options within the tertiary education
sub-sector to encourage the development of new programmes involving the
industry. To facilitate the development of clear and widely accepted definition
of tertiary education. The Act seeks to establish mechanisms for monitoring,
evaluation and review of standards and norms.
15.
MEETING WITH ACTING CHIEF DIRECTOR, REGIONAL CO-OPERATION
AND NEPAD
The delegation was initially scheduled to meet with the
Hon. Minister for Regional Co-operation and NEPAD, Dr. Konadu
Apraku, who could not make it.
The Acting Chief Director
responsible for Regional Co-operation and NEPAD instead welcomed it. To
spearhead the conceptualization of NEPAD, the government decided to create a
Ministry for NEPAD to deal with matters related to NEPAD. The major role played
the Ministry for NEPAD is to coordinate the activities of the structure with
the Ministers of Education and Agriculture. In the agricultural sector, the
Ministers are responsible for the implementation of a comprehensive
Agricultural programme.
The Ministry would also be going on
an advocacy outreach programme in
They would like to co-operate with some institutions in
16.
The delegation visited
The school has got a Science Resource Centre that offers
tuition and practical. It also two has qualified nurses who manage an
outpatient ward with 12 beds, six dormitories blocks for 600 boys and five
dormitories for 700 girls. The school has got a choir and most of the learners
belong to that choir. The school won the North West Choral music and obtained
top position in the region.
The challenges facing the school are; the utility vehicle
used for internal usage had broken, the sanitation facilities are unacceptable,
printing machine to print examination papers had broken. However some of the
former students offer assistance through donations. The school has received 300
metal chairs.
On the other hand the schools has
received a contribution of R1, 4 million from the Swedish government towards
the establishment of the Internet facility. The
17.
MEETING WITH VICE-CHANCELLOR OF
The delegation visited the University College of Education
of Winneba and was welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor of
the university, Prof Niibi Ay-Boute.
Accompanying the Vice Chancellor were the Heads and Deans of the different
departments. The Vice-Chancellor briefed the delegation and focused on the
establishment, the roots, the vision and mission, the goals, the structure, the
faculties, mandate of the institution and the number of campuses constituting
the institution.
17.1
Establishment of Winneba
The University College of Education of Winneba
was established in 1992 as part of the educational reforms. The University
College of Education of Winneba is an advanced
specialist teacher training college. By its set up, operates a multi-campus
system. It was mandated to produce professional teachers for Basic, Secondary
and
It has three campuses, namely, Kumasi Campus, which
emphasizes on advanced technical and business education. The other is the
Ashanti-Mampong Campus, which specializes in
agricultural education. The third is the Winneba
Campus, which has three sites and produces teachers in areas such as Science,
Social Studies, Music, Art, Home Economics, Basic Education, Special Education,
Mathematics, English, French and Ghananian Languages.
The University College of Education of Winneba is a
unique institution that offers advanced teacher education, it was granted full
university status with effect from October 2002.
In 2004 the university became an autonomous institution in
terms of Winneba Act 672.
17.2
The
Vision and
The University seeks to become the most excellent teacher
education university in
17. 3 Goals
of the Institution
The major goals of the university are to: improve Academic
Excellence, improve infrastructure, initiate Innovative Programmes,
establish partnerships, address Imbalances in Educational Provision and ensure
financial self-sufficiency.
17.4 The University in brief
The full-time students at the
institution for the financial year under review stand at aggregate level of
18,317, with a gender breakdown of 10 706 males, and of 7 611 female students.
In terms of its budget allocation, the university received ˘158 billion
(US$17.5m) in 2005.
17.5 Students
17.6 Full –time Students
17.7 Faculty of Language
Education
The Faculty of Language Education
continued to focus on research and teaching related to the improvement of
performance in languages used in
17.8 Faculty of
Technology Education
The faculty continued its primary functions of teaching and
research in Information Technology Education. The Faculty is making every
effort to reposition itself in order to respond to the rapid changes in
information technology and the information economy.
17.9
Faculty of Agriculture Education
The Faculty teaches courses in Agricultural Education and
Animal Science. The faculty continued to provide training to an ever-increasing
number of students in addition to carrying out its other functions of research
and extension. The programmes offered are all areas,
namely, Animal Breeding, Meat Science and Technology, Microbiology and
Immunology, Nutrition, Pasture and Range Management and Physiology.
17.10
The Faculty of Creative Arts Education continued to attract
a great deal of patronage from students and research scholars. The school
offered both full time and short courses to a large number of students in the
four areas of Art, Music and Performing arts, Enrichment programme
in Music and General Music Diploma.
17.11 Faculty of Science Education
The Faculty of Science Education continued to play a major
role in the education of undergraduate students in the Science Faculty. The
student interest in the subjects is picking and this is reflected in the
increased number of students registering for, Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Sports, Home Economics Education, Mathematics Education, Science
Education.
17.12 Distinctive Profile
The year under review was another good year in the life of
the faculty. Besides smooth academic and non-academic work in
the faculty during the period, the faculty. Its members were involved in
a number of activities that sought to strengthen its position as an enviable
hub in Africa for, PGD Guidance and Counselling, PGD
Education Student internship, Distance Education which increased with female
enrolment increasing to 60%, Applied Linguistic Project studying 15 local
languages and technical, vocational and creative arts.
17.13 Partnerships
The university had entered into
legal links with outside universities and institutions. Currently the
university had signed agreements and established partnership with, Leeds
University, UK, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, Lee University in
Cleveland, Tennessee, USA, University of Pennsylvania, USA, Arizona State
University, West, University of Jyvasklya, Finland,
Ohio University, Athens, USA, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada,
Carnegie Corporation of New York and UNICEF.
17.14 Improvement in Infrastructure
The university had seriously
embarked on an epochal drive to re-structure and re-designate the university by
upgrading it to a modern university, in order to keep up with the increasing
numbers of students. A number of infrastructure improvements were by were
noted, namely, new Libraries with ICT Laboratories were built at the Winneba and
18
RECOMMENDATIONS
o
The Committee recommends that the Departments of Education
and Foreign Affairs to work out system of promoting partnerships between South
African Universities and those in Mali with the aim of developing sustaining
the Indigenous African languages.
o
It is recommended that
GHANA
o
The Committee recommends that the Department should consider
introducing measures for the government to offer assistance for permanent
exchange programmes through the Institute for International Affairs for student
within the African countries.