Category: Education

Angola’s northern Uige province is on the track of development as a result of several projects that have been implemented in the region to improve the social conditions of the population, said the local governor José Carvalho da Rocha.

José da Rocha was speaking at a meeting of the Council of Local Governance, chaired by President João Lourenço, attended by governors from the country’s 18 provinces and heads of ministerial departments.

Taking stock of the activities and the plan of the social projects in Uige, the governor stressed that the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM) in the province has been revolutionising the lives of citizens.

As example, he referred to the new schools, new equipment and others related to health and the new jobs.

Delivering his speech, in the presence of the head of State, he said that the region contains 89 PIIM projects, spread across 17 budget units, 164 in the education sector, one in higher education, eight in health, six for water and 10 for roads.

On the education sector, he said that, this school year, 632,464 children were enrolled, which represents an increase of 6.5 percent against the previous school year.

He said, however, that 49,624 pupils were still outside the education system.

The education sector in the province controls 16,069 staff, of whom 15,256 are teachers and 810 are employees at different levels of teaching.

This number of students is housed in 7,791 classrooms, mostly in public education.

The governor said the number of existing classrooms, around 2,291 are of precarious construction, which represents 29 percent, and 674 are still improvised classrooms.

According to him, in order to solve these problems, 549 schools at different levels of education need to be built.

In terms of higher education, the province has four higher education institutions, two public and two private.

Health

The local governor said that the region has 3,051 health professionals, including 196 doctors and 1777 nurses.

He also said that the hospital network comprises 370 hospitals, of which one general hospital, 11 municipal hospitals, two maternity hospitals, two specialised centres, 264 health posts and 88 health centres, which represented a hospitalisation capacity of 1089 beds.

More health professionals

Carvalho da Rocha pointed out the hiring, in the province, of 530 health professionals in different categories, promising the improvement of medical assistance to the population with the construction of the Uige General Hospital, which will provide more medical assistance to the population.

Infrastructures

The region has a road network of 2,605 kilometres and of these the rehabilitation of 1,114 kilometres of road has been registered, which has been enabling the connection of the province’s headquarters with the different municipalities.

According to the governor, at the moment the most glaring actions in this sector are the connections to the municipalities of Milunga, Bembe and Buengas.

Energy and water the big challenge

Of the 16 municipalities that make up the province, only three have conventional energy. The governor said that this is the biggest challenge that he proposes to bring energy to all the municipalities.

With 16 municipalities, the northern Uige province hás the Agriculture and trade as the main sectors of activity. DC/AL/DAN/NIC

Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)

The Ho Technical University has been tasked to lead a sustainable sanitation project in districts in the Volta Region.

The Sustainable Sanitation in the Volta Region programme is being offered by the Global Dry Toilet Association in Finland in collaboration with Jamk University of Applied Sciences.

Through the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland, they partnered with the Ho Municipal Assembly and the Technical University in 2019 for the implementation of a sustainable sanitation model.

Ten institutional toilets were constructed in the Municipality using the Urine Diverting Dry Toilet (UDDT) model, which is harvested urine for processing into an agricultural input.

A team led by Ms. Tuija Manerus, Project Specialist and Lecturer at the Jamk University, paid a courtesy call on Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, ahead of the commencement of the new programme.

Madam Stella Kumedzro, Regional Environmental Health Officer, was present at the engagement, and the Regional Minister was briefed on the success of the pilot programme, which proved the potency in meeting both sanitation and agronomic needs, with vital role played by the HTU.

An exchange programme forms part of the programme, which would enable officers of the Environmental Health Department to broaden and enhance their expertise in Finland.

The Regional Minister was told that the Ho West, Adaklu and Agortime Ziope Districts would also become beneficiaries of the Sustainable Sanitation programme to help transform sanitation and enhance agriculture.

Dr. Letsa expressed joy about the partnership and shared the appreciation of the Regional Co-ordinating Council for the project.

He expressed satisfaction with the efforts to harvest urine for agricultural uses, and stated, ‘the partnership would not only improve sanitation in the Region but also assist farmers to improve crop production at a lower cost.’

He praised the Ho Technical University’s commitment and successes with the programme, and was confident of sustained progress during the upscale.

The Technical University’s recent resounding scientific breakthrough with the baobab tree gives enviable credit to the role of urea, harvested at the urine diverting dry toilets.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana’s best tertiary institution for the 2022/2023 academic year, has begun exploring various educational opportunities and collaborative programmes available in the Republic of Indonesia.

The move, which among other things, would also cover the Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) space, would give a further boost to several courses including Engineering, Science, Technology, and Humanity programmes being offered at the University.

This was revealed when Professor Mrs Rosemond Boohene, the Pro Vice Chancellor of the University paid a courtesy call on Mr Paskal A. B. Rois, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Indonesia in Ghana at his office in Accra.

The engagement allowed the two leaders to share various educational and other opportunities, which would inure to the benefit of both countries and particularly, Ghanaians.

Professor Boohene said UCC was looking at collaborative areas such as short-term training, full staff, and students exchange programmes as well as scholarship opportunities for faculty and students in Indonesian universities in all study fields.

She intimated that UCC was also seeking to increase its staff strength by building their capacities through the pursuant of master’s and Philosophy Degrees (Ph.D.) programmes by faculty and students, adding that the move would enable the university to develop and strengthen its career areas like Pharmacy, Engineering and the Arts.

She revealed that UCC was ranked in the 2022/2023 academic year as the first University in Ghana and in the West African sub-region.

‘It was also the fourth in Africa and one of the best globally’, Professor Boohene added.

She stated that UCC would want to leverage the huge institutional reputation to partner with tertiary institutions in Indonesia to continue to churn out quality students from Ghana for the world at large.

Mr. A. B. Rois on his part, lauded Prof Boohene and the Management staff of the University for the success chalked so far and their continuous efforts to sustain the gains made over the decades.

He expressed the hope that the proposed educational collaboration between UCC and their counterparts in Indonesia, would open another great chapter in the relations between Ghana and Indonesia.

Mr Rois discussed the various educational opportunities that Indonesian universities and his country, could offer UCC as being requested, assuring that the collaboration was highly possible for the promotion and advancement of education in the two countries.

He said Indonesian universities provided all manner of educational programmes and opportunities ranging from Humanities, Technology, and the Sciences to Agriculture, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Pharmacy, Tourism, and Engineering amongst others for undergraduate, Master’s and Philosophy Degree (Ph.D.) students from across the world.

The Honorary Consul informed the Pro Vice Chancellor of the existence of the KNB Scholarship Scheme by Indonesia, which both faculty and students of UCC could take advantage of to better their lot including their academic laurels.

‘There is also the partial scholarship where the government of Indonesia bears the full tuition cost with the student paying for the living costs and more than 15 students from Ghana were currently pursuing various educational programmes under the partial scholarship package.’

Mr Rois again explained that Indonesia, with its population of more than 270 million people and her status as a member of the G-20 group, produced almost everything the country consumed and used, ranging from food, equipment, fertilizers, clothing, military hardware, and ammunition to textiles, detergents, and soaps as well as pharmaceuticals to aircraft amongst others.

Indonesia, he said, did not only manufacture its products in line with European standards but also exported the same to several countries across the globe.

He cited one government garment factory for instance in Indonesia, PT Sritex that had a workforce of 50,000 people, emphasizing that Ghana could learn a lot of technology from Indonesia.

The Honorary Consul also disclosed that his outfit was working hard to get an Indonesian Pharmaceutical Company to partner a Ghanaian firm to produce all the childhood vaccines needed by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service for children.

He also announced the establishment of what he described as the Indonesia African Trade Mission with a vision to help African business firms and companies to collaborate with their counterparts in Indonesia for partnership in any discipline including education to move the African continent and trade to a higher level.

Professor Boohene, in her response, noted that most of the universities in Ghana and Africa were currently also looking out for entrepreneurship programmes for their students so as not only to churn out students looking for jobs but also job creators themselves with the skills and knowledge they would have acquired from the university.

She said UCC was using its Design Thinking and Innovation Hub and the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development to nurture its students to grow business ideas to become employable themselves.

Source: Ghana News Agency