POOR FACILITIES AFFECT NAVRONGO CAMPUS OF UDS (PAGE 11, OCT 28)

THE lack of residential facilities for both staff and students, poor road network and lack of space for expansion have been identified as some of the major challenges facing the Navrongo Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS).
The Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University, Dr Kenneth B. Pelig-Ba, made these observations at the 17th matriculation of freshmen and women admitted to the University at Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana East District of the Upper East Region.
According to him, the lack of residential facilities for both staff and students, had forced a majority of the personnel who should have been accommodated on campus to seek shelter far away from the campus.
Apart from the inconvenience of commuting long distances to school, the situation had also exposed them to landlords who charged exorbitant fees far above what the students and lecturers and other members of the university community could afford.
He has therefore appealed to the government to channel more resources towards the provision of residential accommodation for both staff and students to enhance teaching and learning in the university.
According to the acting Vice Chancellor of the UDS, Professor Sagary K. Nokoe, for the 2009/2010 academic year, the university received a total of 12,450 applications for its undergraduate degree programmes but the university was able to offer admission to 8,743 applicants, representing about 80 per cent of those who qualified, adding that another 847 applicants were offered admission to pursue diploma programmes.
Professor Nokoe said to ensure that brilliant students who failed to get their first choices of study did not miss out; the university offered them their second and third choice programmes.
He disclosed that during this year’s admission, the university was, as usual, guided by its policy of providing applicants from deprived communities access to university education, stressing that the university was steadfast in demonstrating its commitment to providing more access to female applicants to pursue the university’s programmes.
“For the medical programmes, a deliberate strategy was adopted to ensure higher admission numbers from the three deprived northern regions”, Prof. Nokoe said.
While commending the government and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for their support, Prof. Nokoe expressed the hope that the pledge by the GETFund to construct a 1,000 capacity students hostel at the Tamale and Navrongo campus will soon be fulfilled.
The guest of honour for the occasion, the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, said the government was committed to breaking the chain of poverty by establishing the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) through which people in the north would be provided with good roads, hospitals, educational facilities and farm inputs to help bridge the development imbalance between the north and south.
He said this could not be achieved if people in the north continued with the unnecessary conflicts which were retarding development in the area.
Mr Woyongo gave the assurance that the government for its part, would in collaboration with other stakeholders, remain committed to designing programmes to provide unemployed graduates with entrepreneurial skills and employment opportunities.
The regional minister said in line with this, the government would soon be undertaking a comprehensive review of the curricula of all educational institutions, including both second cycle and tertiary levels in consultation with all stakeholders with the view to making the school system relevant to the labour market and industry in general.