The World Bank Ghana has donated 15 laptops each to the School of Business and the Sam Jonah Library at a short ceremony in Accra.
 
The donation was in response to an appeal made by the School and the Sam Jonah Library for laptops to enhance teaching and learning.
 
At the presentation ceremony, the Senior Country Operations Officer of the Bank, Dr. Beatrix Allah-Mensah, said the donation was to encourage teaching and learning of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). She added that the gesture formed part of the Bank's Corporate Social Responsibility.
 
Dr. Allah- Mensah  said the Bank had been funding government's projects with the aim of reducing poverty. She mentioned the construction of the Akosombo Dam as one of the funded projects initiated by the Bank in the 60s. She further indicated that the World Bank had been assisting the Ghanaian economy in the areas of energy, education, ICT, health, infrastructure,water and sanitation, among others.
 
She called on stakeholders in the education sector to read the 2018 World Development Report, which focuses on learning challenges in schools. She advised the stakeholders to help school children with the needed resources to make learning easy for them at school, adding that the Report categorically pointed out that " The fact that you  have been to school doesn't mean you have learnt". Consequently, she noted that the Bank would continue to assist educational institutions in Ghana with teaching and learning materials.
 
The Vice-Dean of the School, Dr. Siaw Frimpong, who received the items, commended World Bank for the donation and called on other corporate bodies to emulate the gesture.
 Dr. Frimpong stated that the laptops would go a long way to improve the academic performance of students and assured the Bank that the School would put the laptops to good use.
 
On his part, Mr. Kwame Boohene, from the Sam Jonah Library, said the laptops would help students with disability in their ICT studies.
Other beneficiaries included the Ghana Technology University College and the Islamic Primary and Junior High School,Accra.

The Directorate of Research, Innovative and Consultancy (DRIC), in collaboration with the Elsevier, has organised a capacity-building workshop for Senior Members to enhance their knowledge in research and publication.
 
Addressing participants, the Director of Journal Services at Elsevier Publishing Development, Mrs. Annette Leeuwendal, urged academic staff to continously publish in order not to perish in the academic sector. Mrs. Leeuwendal told the participants to do proper evaluation of their research areas and also find out which journal was right for their articles, before submission.
 She entreated them to visit elsevier.com to find the right journal's home page with aim and scope, accepted types of articles, readership, current hot topics and guide for authors.
 
Mrs. D. Leeuwendal advised participants to consider content, style and language seriously before submitting their articles for publication and added that editors do not waste time on poorly prepared manuscripts. The Director of Journal Services took participants through the ‘dos’ and ‘don'ts’ of authorship and the necessary sanctions that would be meted out to offenders by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE.).
 
Mrs. Leeuwendal said some of the sanctions included rejection of submission, notification of funding body and many others. She explained that the purpose of peer review was to ensure that best quality papers were selected and also to detect plagiarism and fraud.
 
 The Speaker admitted that many publishing houses, including Elsevier, have " failed to make an effort to keep authors , researchers abreast of whatever is happening in the process of peer review ". “The principle of peer review included impartiality, transparency and confidentiality”, she said.
 
Mrs. Leeuwendral noted that fabrication, falsification and plagiarism were core ethical problems on scientific research and also advised researchers to refrain from acts like salami slicing. She encouraged researchers to share their works on social media platforms and mendeley stats so as to get their papers noticed across the world. She advised all researchers to register with Elsevier on www. publishingcampus.elsevier.com/workshops.
 
Prof. Paul  Ahiatograh,  of the College of Distance Education (CoDE),who chaired the workshop, thanked the resource person for her insightful presentation and called on academic staff to do away with all forms of plagiarism during research.

Dozens of residents in the Cape Coast Metropolis have participated in a breast cancer awareness health walk to sensitise Ghanaians on the dangers of the disease.
 
Organised by the Breast Screening Services, an organisation made up of lecturers of the School of Medical Sciences (SMS), the walk was also to climax the month-long activities lined up to mark the breast cancer awareness month (October)
 
Amidst brass band music, the walk also brought together a cross-section of students from some second cycle institutions in the metropolis. The participants undertook the 16-kilometre walk from the Siwdu Park through some principal streets of Cape Coast and ended up at the Jubilee (Victoria) Park.
 
Speaking to journalists after the walk, a Senior lecturer at the SMS and a member of the Breast Screening Service, Dr. Akwesi Anyanful, said breast cancer was highly treatable and curable if diagnosed early.As a result, he entreated both men and women to take proactive measures to stay alive to support the development of the country.
 
After the breast screening exercise, which covered both young and adult females, Dr. Anyanful disclosed that 15 women were found to have lumps in their breast. Seven of the cases, he continued, had reached stage three, while the rest were stages one and two respectively.
 
The Senior lecturer observed that stage three of a lump indicated a critical state, whilst stages one and two had higher chances of survival. Nonetheless, Dr. Anyanful added that every stage demands attention and noted that those diagnosed with serious conditions had been referred to the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital for effective treatment. He advised men to encourage their wives to go for breast screening since early detection and treatment was important to the welfare of women and the society.
 
The Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs. Thywill Kpe,pledged the support of the Department towards combating breast cancer among children of school-going age.
 She said breast cancer was curable with early detection and called for the concerted efforts by all stakeholders to  join forces to campaign against the disease in order to save precious lives.
 
She appealed to women to make themselves available all the time  for regular breast screening at reputable health facilities.