Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor
Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor and four other prominent Ghanaians have been honoured with membership into the University of Ghana Alumni Association.
At the 28th Alumni lecture on Thursday, Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG), Emerita Professor Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, former Director of the Language Centre, UG, Professor John Owusu Gyapong, the former Pro-Vice Chancellor and Current Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, and Mr Kofi Esson, former Chief of Staff at Tullow Oil Ghana Limited, were honoured to become members of the Alumni.
Paa Kwesi Yankey, the Chairman of the University of Ghana Alumni Association, said the honorary membership was conferred on prominent members of the society who did not attend the University of Ghana but had in diverse ways served or helped the university to be “a go to university”.
He said the individuals had contributed immensely to the development of the university and, therefore, the need to make them honorary members of the Association.
Speaking on the topic: “Who is “them”? Governance in the Educational Sphere,” at the Great Hall of the university, Dr (Mrs) Myma Belo-Osagie, the Senior Managing Partner with Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie, a leading Nigerian Corporate Law Firm, said the importance of education could not be over-emphasised and all must come together to build a solid educational sector for Ghana.
She said in order to excel, the children should have access to comprehensive grammar books and well written literature and be taught how to communicate current technological and scientific concepts accurately and clearly.
“The writing of plays, movie scripts, television scripts, poetry and digital media content in Akan should be encouraged as should research on the language, proverbs and sayings,” she elaborated.
Dr Belo-Osagie indicated that she was interested in the “education that imparts knowledge but is also purposeful in that it seeks to achieve, or support the achievement of, a particular goal or objective.”
She suggested that in order to better the lives of Ghanaians through economic development, the knowledge coming from, or generated by, the educational institutions must be education that did not only respond to the social, political and economic context of the country but also took cognisance of what the future of the country ought to look like.