Institutions of higher learning must collaborate

Page 11
August 31, 2009

THE Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, has called on institutions of higher learning in Africa to collaborate in finding solutions to their problems.
He identified low enrolment ratios, weak infrastructure to support Information and Communication Technology (ICT), ageing faculties, brain drain, unsustainable financial schemes and weak linkage of programmes, among other things, as some of the problems confronting higher educational institutions on the continent.
Mr Tettey-Enyo made the call at the weekend when he opened the Africa-United States Higher Educational Initiative Partners conference in Accra.
The two-day conference was on the theme: “Reshaping Human and International Capacity Building through Higher Education Partnerships”.
It was organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Association of African Universities (AAU) and Higher Education for Development (HED).
Mr Tettey-Enyo said higher education institutions were the hope for the re-engineering and empowering of African countries to overcome problems confronting the continent, saying that the institutions “are reservoirs for skilled human resources for socio-economic development of the continent”.
He, therefore, called for the building of capacities of higher education institutions to operate to their maximum capacity for the development of the continent.
“I am confident that the deliberations and recommendations arising out of the conference will go a long way to strengthen the Africa-US partnership, as well as partnerships within African institutions of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa in particular and Africa in general,” he said.
The US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Donald G. Teitelbaum, said universities provided opportunities for a generation to do better than the previous.
Africa, he said, was ready for a new wave of social mobility through which economic progress provided a wave of opportunities.
“We are here to build an Africa where what is important is not where you come from but what you aspire to become, not whom you know but what you know. It must be an Africa where everyone, no matter their backgrounds, should be able to rise as far as their talents can take them and where everyone can make the most of the potential they have,” he said.
Mr Teitelbaum said there was the need to look at the potential genius of the children of Africa, the potential scientists, the creativity of artists, the skills of future physicians and the strength in engineering.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. C.N.B. Tagoe, stressed the need for African institutions to work together in addressing the challenges of the continent.