The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, has said the government will constitute a new Governing Council for the University of Education, Winneba this week, following challenges over the legitimacy of the current Council.
He therefore urged students in the various campuses of the school to remain calm as the government works to address the problem.
Prof Yankah also told new and continuing students of the University “to stay hopeful that there is not as much cause for alarm as they originally thought”.
He said he is very hopeful the Council will take the right decisions for calm to prevail for both administrators and students.
The Minister was briefing journalists today [Tuesday], after a higher level meeting with the University’s authorities, and the UEW chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).
The meeting, which lasted for over two hours, was a government initiative aimed at calming fears in the university over administrative and academic issues, as a court case between a private citizen, Supi Kofi Kwayera and the institution continues.
Prof. Yankah expressed government’s concern about the impasse which resulted from the absence of a governing council for the University, and has indicated the readiness of the government to expedite the reconstitution of a new council in the coming days to ensure stability in the University.
He noted that “there is the need for various Councils of the University which in the past several months have not been constituted to be constituted as soon as possible so that they bring all issues in perspective and then decide on what should happen”.
On what the soon to be constituted council would have to do in the immediate term, the Minister suggested that “they can decide to ratify or not to ratify some of the decisions taken by the previous council”.
He has also suggested that the incoming council could opt for an out-of-court settlement of the case currently pending in court, urging “the national interest and the interest of the students should be paramount”.
Many incoming, continuing and some past students of the University have been worried over what could happen to their various degree and diploma certificates issued from 2013 to date as the controversies over the lack of a governing Council continues.
However, the Minister of State has sought to calm them, saying, “Those who were expecting that the degree and diploma they have obtained will be nullified, let’s leave that to the Council.”
He added that, “whatever decision the new council comes out with, I am very optimistic that it will be in the interest of stability of education in the country”.
Prof Kwesi Yankah has again appealed to members of UTAG in the University to rescind their resolve to stay out of the lecture halls till the entire court case is over.
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