UG, NEW YEAR SCHOOL

Story: Caroline Boateng The relevance of the annual New Year School of the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE) of the University of Ghana, Legon, has been recognised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The NDPC last, year during the 63rd School on the theme, "One year of oil and gas production: emerging issues,", was represented by its Chairman, Mr P. V. Obeng, who highly recommended the school and charged his officials to forge meaningful ways of collaboration for better policy alternatives for Ghanaians. The 64th School, which begins on January 14 and ends on January 18, 2013, has already had the NDPC contributing to the selection of the theme, which is, "the key to the future health of our nation: improved water, sanitation and hygiene, organisers of the 64th School told journalists at a breakfast meeting in Accra today. The theme for the next school, seeks to target the behaviour and attitudes of the Ghanaian as cadinal in any development effort. In the interaction with journalists, the Director of the ICDE, Prof Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, highlighted the opportunities offered by the school, that is the dispassionate discussion on the issues of sanitation, hygiene and the attitudes of all in getting round the challenge bedevilling the country. He said while people might want to measure the immediate impact of the Schools, the value in education was imeasurable. But he added however, that submissions in the school had fed into the creation of the GETFund for the educational sector and the local content policy for the oil and gas sector. Prof Oheneba-Sakyi added that the keynote address would be given by the chief executive officer of ZOOMlion, Mr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, while the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing was expected to open the school. The Director of the 64th Annaul New Year School, Dr Micheal Tagoe, said the greatest impact of the school was the creation of a platform for the dispassionate discussion of issues. As an educational institution, he added, the annual new year schools offered the platform for the deliberation on issues by any Ghanaian. After the discussions and submissions, it then behoved on particular public institutions to pick up the relevant submissions and work with those. Dr Tagoe however promised that the school was going to track its impact soon, following up on participants and how institutions used information generated at the school. (Submitted: December 20, 2012. Unpublished. Daily Graphic)