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The government will establish six new universities in the country by the end of this year, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said.
They are the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Akrodie in the Ahafo Region; the University of Engineering and Agricultural Science at Bunso in the Eastern Region; the University of Health, Agriculture and Life Sciences at Kintampo in the Bono East Region; the University of Mampong in the Ashanti Region; the Local Governance and Leadership University in Accra, and the University for Sports Development.
The move, the minister said, was to increase gross tertiary enrolment ratio of the country.
In a presentation in Accra yesterday on the State of Education in the country, Dr Adutwum said there was a bold attempt by the government that by 2030, the country should be able to hit 40 per cent gross tertiary enrolment ratio.
“The moment you get that, things change in your country and it is seen around the world,” he said.
The forum for the presentation was attended by a number of personalities, including heads of agencies under the Ministry of Education, heads of schools, directors of education, representatives of the country's development partners and civil society organisations.
Delivering what he described as an evidence-based presentation at the Accra International Conference Centre, Dr Adutwum said, among other things, the state of education was now stronger than what the government met seven years ago.
He added that the education sector had seen massive investment in infrastructure expansion, access and quality.
The Minister of Education said the construction of some of the universities had been completed and that the bills were in Parliament, and that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education was going to be working on them "so that we can get the act that would establish them".
“Our nation’s education system is stronger and better than we came to find it seven years ago,” Dr Adutwum said, and that “it is better because the President gave us the free hand to innovate and transform education”.
In the area of technical, vocational, education and training (TVET), for instance, he said there had been great transformation with the provision of equipment to training institutions.
“We may not be able to transform all of them but we have made giant strides, we are on the right path,” the Education Minister said.
Dr Adutwum stated that the government within the last seven years introduced the non-guarantor policy to address the challenge of getting a guarantor, which previously existed.
He said an open university would be introduced to enable students to pursue courses online through correspondence to obtain degrees. Dr Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe in the Ashanti Region, said the government had also embarked on a major transformation of education through Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS).
"Next academic year, we are going to have for the first time, an online high school," the lawmaker said, adding "we need to make sure that we carry everyone along". Next month, through the Ministry of Education Television, CENDLOS would be launched with a 24/7 programming.
"Very soon, we would be telling our own story, the story of transformation," he emphasised. Dr Adutwum stated that digitalisation had also found space in education with high school students given tablets and that the distribution was still ongoing.
He said the one student, one tablet initiative was an innovation that had come to stay and was on course. Dr Adutwum said the model junior high schools were also going to be given tablets, adding that "this is the present and future of education in Ghana".
The textbook under the new high school curriculum, he said, would be uploaded on to the tablets for use by the children.
Dr Adutwum mentioned the introduction of the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) initiative in the country and that individuals with gifts should be provided an environment that would enable them to blossom.
South Korea and America, he said, had done it and that the results were there for all to see. He said that was going to be one of the last innovations that the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was going to bring into the education system.
That, he said, had been presented to Cabinet for approval. Dr Adutwum said the students were being equipped for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), citing developments such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).
He indicated that if the country did not pay attention to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), "it is going to be very difficult for us to participate in this Fourth Industrial Revolution".
"So the nation that educates its youth in STEM and is able to ensure that the youth learn something about Internet of things, AI and block chain and all those technologies that can create the software to drive industrialisation are the nations that are going to have a positive job growth," the Minister of Education stated.
Dr Adutwum said the education system was being moved away from the era of rote learning, popularly known as “chew, pour, pass and forget”, to critical thinking, critical analysis, creativity and innovation, among others.
The minister said he was extremely excited about STEM centres in the country where the youth were learning robotics and others that were being taught around the world.
He cited the Accra High School STEM Centre and the Accra STEM Academy at East Legon, both in Accra as examples. "This is the present and the future of Ghana's education system.
We are not waiting for anyone. The President’s vision is clear and we need to leapfrog and get ahead of the world," Dr Adutwum stated.
Dr Adutwum also spoke about the country attaining gender parity at the second-cycle level as parents now did not choose which of their children should go to school because of limited resources as a result of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, which had led to an increase in enrolment from 800,000 to 1.2 million.
He also mentioned the improvement in performance of students in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. He refuted claims that basic education was being neglected and cited the improved infrastructural works being undertaken in some kindergarten, primary and junior high schools.
"Across the length and breadth of Ghana, new science laboratories have been built in existing schools and the new schools," Dr Adutwum said. He named some of the beneficiary institutions as Wesley Girls SHS, Aburi Girls SHS, Okuapeman SHS, St Louis SHS, Ahantaman SHS, Kumasi High School and the Aflao Community SHS, saying "these are schools that have been fully equipped with the necessary gadgets so that they can do science experiments".
"Our country is doing investment in education, not just at the secondary level but the primary level and the JHS level," he said.
On foundational learning, Dr Adutwum said the government was revolutionising Kindergarten education by equipping teachers with modern teaching methodologies tailored for early childhood development.
