The Ministry of Education has given the strongest indication yet of its intention to pursue reforms at the Tertiary Education level that will see the harmonization of all acts governing public universities.
The move means all Universities will be governed by one law instead of the current situation where the various institutions have their own laws that dictate their direction.
Government has been at loggerheads with the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), education advocates and lecturers since it announced the reform with calls for the shelving of the move to harmonize the laws.
Taking his turn at the 2019 Meet the press series of the Information ministry, Education minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh said his outfit will go ahead with the reforms despite the opposition.
According to him ensuring all public universities are governed by a single law will lead to “consistency and enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency.”
He said government will as part of the reforms set up an apex Regulatory Body with the task of supervising and directing all tertiary education institutions.
Matthew Opoku Prempeh also said the education ministry shall also work with government to set out eligibility criteria that will regulate the caliber of persons that are appointed to governing councils of the various universities.
In addition, the Education minister said the reforms when implemented will limit the membership of University Councils to a minimum of nine and a maximum of 13, two-thirds of whom “must be persons who are not staff or students.”
“Councils shall have the power to co-opt additional members from outside the institutions but such co-opted members shall have non-voting status,” he stated.
Story by: Sena Nombo/Radiogoldlive.com
