Category: Education

The Nduom School of Business and Technology (NSBT) has graduated its first two batches of students who completed in the years 2021 and 2022 at the school's maiden congregation and third matriculation ceremony. The school churned out a total of 25 graduates who pursued various degree and diploma programmes in the two years, eight of whom completed in 2021 and 17 in 2022. Two of the graduands completed with first class, 12 with second class upper, nine with second class lower and two with third class. At the same time, the school officially admitted 90 new students to pursue various programmes. The degree programmes included Bsc. Banking and Finance, BSc Information and Communication Technology, and BSc. Information Technology Management for Business. The diploma programmes are Management Studies, Accounting, Information Technology, and Banking and Finance. Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, founder of the school and Chairman of the Governing Board, gifted a cash of $1,000 as capital to each of the first eight students with whom the school started in 2018 in fulfilment of a promise he made. He urged them to invest the money in productive ventures and not waste it. Dr Nduom averred that the first graduation of NSBT marked a significant milestone of the institution's resolve to deliver quality education in business and technology and said they were on course with their vision to make the school the best in business and technology. He said the school was dedicated to helping students meet their life goals through a unique practical and positive learning experience. 'Groupe Nduom (GN) itself is growing stronger, which means our students will get opportunity to gain practical experience while here in the fields of insurance, investment, manufacturing, media, hospitality, banking and others,'noted. He said they were working to ensure that all the 25 graduates were gainfully employed. 'As the first batch of alumni, we are asking you to keep us close because we will work with you to make sure that you move on to productive em ployment and a great life experience,' he assured. He added that they had set up a scholarship fund to continue offering financial assistance to their students and entreated the graduands never to give up no matter the odds but persevere with their talents, truth and discipline to achieve success. He recalled that NSBT's beginning coincided with the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and some Groupe Nduom challenges, but they managed to sail through with determination. Citing the school's motto; 'Mpanyindzi, Adom Akyedze, Kandzea' meaning, 'leadership, talent, light', he urged them to be leaders and not followers and also nurture their talents to make them useful in society. Rev Prof Daniel Adjepong Nyarko, the Rector of NSBT, said the school was establishing collaborative partnership with universities abroad, especially in the USA, in the spirit of nurturing students to acquire the relevant knowledge and skills essential to national development and economic growth. He noted that the school had a collaboratio n agreement with the Ivorian Ministry of Technical and Vocational Education and Training under which they had so far trained 197 Ivorian students in English language proficiency. He said the School placed so much premium on such partnerships and announced plans to create an office of international relations to coordinate all such activities in the next quarter. He advised the graduands to be honest and committed in all their actions and urged them to return to the school to give back when they became successful. Dr Emmanuel Newman, Director for Policy, Planning and Research at the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), urged them to make use of their training and never stay home unemployed. He said staying unemployed was a betrayal of their education and urged them to leverage the experiences acquired in school to get themselves employed by solving problems in the society. 'It doesn't matter what you read; if you read history, you can start a farm. With your skills, you can bring people together to do the farming; it doesn't mean you will do the farming yourself,' he said. Dr Newman announced that NSBT would soon charter and become a fully-fledged university, explaining that the school had all the facilities and the resources to operate as a university. 'That means that we are sure that the graduates can perform at the same level as any graduate any where in the world,' he added. Source: Ghana News Agency

Nene Tetteh Osabutey Lanuer Okumo IV, the Divisional Chief of the Dangmebiawer Clan of the Ada Traditional Area, said some students of the Ada Senior High School (ADASCO) sneak out to town at night due to the lack of funds to complete the school fence. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, he said the school authorities notified him of the activities of some commercial motor riders (okada boys) who used to pick up some of the students, especially the females, to town at night. 'I remember when the old students were completing the fence-wall, some okada guys came in trying to stop them, but it took the intervention of the police to stop the okada guys. Later, they came to pull down a portion of the wall, but the old students were also very resilient, and so they were able to continue to a portion,' the Chief said. Nene Okumo advised the students against the act because such behaviours could have negative effects on their future and cautioned the okada riders to desist from the unlawful practice . He appealed to organisations and old students to support the project to get the school walled to enhance discipline and security as well as prevent encroachers from taking over portions of the land. Nene Okumo said the school land was under his clan and he would support the fencing project with some cement to speed up its completion. Mr Carlos Ackwer, the Chairman, ADASCO Old Students Association (Nimeli), said the old students single-handedly embarked on the walling project since 2018 upon advice from a headmaster. One of the old students, Dr. Nii Kotei Djanie, a former Council of State member, helped to push the project as well as support from the PTA. The fencing has become even more important following a recent incident of two of the students sneaking out and getting drowned in an attempt to fetch water. Meanwhile, a visit by the GNA to the school saw portions of the land already encroached on by some private developers. The southern part of the school has a dwarf wall, which aids the students to sneak out to town. Source: Ghana News Agency

Academic work in the Sunyani West Municipality has resumed, following the three teachers union calling off their two weeks strike over poor conditions of service. The union has also called on the Ministry of Education and the Government to continue with the negotiations. The National Labour Commission (NLC) earlier secured an injunction restraining the teacher unions from continuing their strike. Teachers have resumed work in some of the schools that the Ghana News Agency visited at Fiapre in the Sunyani west Municipality. The Junior High School (JHS) three classrooms at St. Patrick Catholic School at Fiapre were full of students seriously writing their Mock papers. Some of the pupils at the lower level were not yet present in the school but one of the teachers, Nana Kwame Adu, hoped they may be in their numbers the next day. Meanwhile, schools in the Sunyani East Municipality were still closed on the orders of the Bono Regional director of the Ghana Education service. In a statement on March 18, the D irector urged the schools in the Sunyani Municipal to allow school children within the Sunyani traditional area to stay home from 2 April, to 5 April, 2024 due to the funeral of the late paramount chief of Sunyani Nana Asor Nkrawie II. The statement said the request was made during an engagement with representatives from the Sunyani Traditional Council and the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Sunyani Municipal Assembly. The move was to ensure the safety of the children during the peak of the final funeral rites of the late chief which was set from Monday 1 April to Sunday April 7, 2024, it added. The late Nana Nkrawiri II died in July 2022, at the Bono Regional Hospital. Source: Ghana News Agency

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia Wednesday cut the sod for the construction of a 200-bed capacity hostel for the Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra. The four-storey multi-purpose hostel would be completed within 14 months, with funding from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). The project is being implemented in partnership with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the Office of the Vice President. The sod-cutting ceremony was in fulfillment of a promise the Vice President Bawumia made to the school two years ago during its 76th congregation. Dr Bawumia said the hostel facility would provide a conducive accommodation for pastor trainees to study and impart moral values to society. 'As an institution that trains and instills Godly values, the construction of this hostel will not only provide the much-needed accommodation for students, it will also serve as a hub for more learning and growth,' he said. Dr Bawumia said he wanted to see a Ghana where emphasis was placed on values and doing the right things, with the human factor playing its appropriate role in curbing, among other vices, corruption, bribery, crime, dishonesty and indiscipline. With that in mind, he would usher in a golden age of collaboration and partnership between government, faith-based organisations, and the church and 'incentivise our faith-based organisations'. 'And I believe that if we give them incentives, just as we give our external development partners, we will see a lot more coming from them and we will legislate those incentives in the context of the proposed charities bill.' The Vice-President said: 'When I look at the role of the Church and faith-based organisations you will see that in various areas, especially education and health, the Church has been very remarkable.' He urged the stakeholders to look forward with optimism to the day when the hostel would stand tall as a testament to their collective vision and determination, which would address the accommodation deficit and serve as a hub for more l earning and growth. Dr Richard Ampofo Boadu, the Administrator, GETFund, said financing of education within Ghana's tertiary sub sector was a complex and multi-faceted challenge that required collective action and commitment. He, thus, encouraged tertiary institutions both public and private to explore innovative financing mechanisms to mobilise additional resources for tertiary education. The Director- General of GTEC, Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, in a speech read on his behalf, said expanding access to tertiary education had been a critical component of the Commission's plan. 'We have prioritised these endeavours with the aim of achieving a gross tertiary enrollment ratio of 40 per cent by the year 2030.' That ambitious goal, he explained, aligned not only with the national aspirations of GTEC but also the continental and international benchmark set forth in agenda 2063 of the African Union and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Very Rev. Prof J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, the President of the Tri nity Theological Seminary, in his welcome remarks, commended the Vice President, GTEC and the GETFund for the initiative. He said it would help to minimise the housing deficit of the Seminary and inspire it to improve its services. The facility would cement the relationship between the Seminary and the Government, he said. Source: Ghana News Agency

Design and Technology Institute (DTI) says it is committed to preparing young people for entrepreneurship, design innovation, and precision welding and fabrication careers.  Miss Constance Swaniker, the Founder and President of DTI, said the institute would be expanding the training offers to include Agriculture and Agri-business and would scale up its unique Precision Quality training to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), artisans, and master crafts persons. Madam Swaniker was speaking at the DTI Stakeholder Meeting on the theme: 'Redefining Academia and Industry Collaboration as a Driver in Building Robust TVET System.' She said DTI was relocating from its current one-acre campus to Berekuso opposite Ashesi University. The Founder said the expansion had been made possible by a 3 million euro funding from the African Union Development Agency, Skills Initiative for Africa, and the German Bank KfW. She said the DTI model required consideration as Ghana and Africa grapple with strategies to ensure full a nd sustainable employment for the teeming youth. 'The DTI since its inception conceived and implemented the Community Liaison Officers initiative which allows the Institute to partner with one or more members of the community to enable them to reach marginalized youth with the DTI opportunities,' she added.  She said in less than five years of full operation, DTI had demonstrated the powerful impact of focused holistic training towards skilling young people and making them ready for the world of work. Miss Swaniker said already, all learners in the first two years of operation of DTI were already in full-time employment or were continuing their studies and assessments from multiple agencies. She said in 2020, DTI, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, embarked on a 3-year project to create 40,000 job opportunities for young people with a focus on females and the vulnerable, a target which had been achieved according to assessments by an independent Labour Economist at the University of Ghana. These job opportunities were created by giving formal training to young people in the dual TVET-cum-production school at DTI, training SMEs and master-craftspersons. It also trained academic and business scale advisors and effected systems change through collaboration with state actors to shape national policy in precision quality and standardisation. 'DTI believes that the traditional TVET approaches to training are overly theoretical and do not equip young people for workplace realities,' she said. She said their unique 'production school' programmes provide learners with regular and adequate hands-on, on-the-job training as part of the curriculum. Miss Swaniker said students, regardless of their field of study, learn by doing and could engage in real-world projects. She said DTI was founded in 2016 on the Accents and Arts (A and A) factory floor to provide the youth with work-readiness skills and to bridge the gap between industry and academia. This occurred because of the huge and unsustainable de mand on A and A to provide internship opportunities for young people, most of whom went on to get well-paid jobs after the training. Dr Christopher Mensah, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Ho Technical University, said with close collaboration with the University and industry the graduates would be trained and ready for the world of work. He said Industries were not seriously committed to investing in the training of students to feed their establishments. He said as a University, they include Precision Quality into their curriculum to equip all students and prepare them for the future. Source: Ghana News Agency