The UCC Pensioners’ Association has climaxed activities for 2018 with the ‘End of Year Get-Together Party’.

Welcoming all members to the function, the Vice-Chairman of the Association, Mr. Edwin Asamoah, commended members for actively participating and contributing towards the betterment of the Association over the past years. He urged members to be confident in the leadership, saying “our meetings have recorded increase in our membership, which means that we have grown and will continue to grow in our membership.” He further acknowledged the presence of sister associations such as Teacher Education Workers Union (TEWU), Senior Staff Association of Universities in Ghana (SSUAG), and thanked them specially, for their financial supports.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, who was also the guest of honour, admonished the leadership and membership of the association to demonstrate care for each other by meeting and getting-together. It is good to reflect on our lives in order to make good decisions in life and being together gives comfort.” He said the current membership strength of 120 was a sign of growth for the association. He promised to host the UCC Pensioners’ Association their End of Year Get-Together Party at the Vice-Chancellors’ Lodge in 2019. “The year 2018 is almost ending and it’s my prayer that we live long to meet 2019 with full strength, good health and prosperity – “Afehyia pa oo!!” he prayed.

The Chairman, National Pensioners Association – Cape Coast branch, Mr. John A. Afful said “being a pensioner is not a curse, but the entire society may treats you in banks, hospitals and other places to fill as if you are under a spell. Therefore, we need to be strong and resilient.” He urged all the pensioners to join forces to prompt the government to help create enabling environment for all pensioners in the country.

Highlighting some of the events for 2018, the Secretary of Pensioners’ Association, Mr. Francis Darko, there have been health talks; first Memorial Service for 13 departed members; social talks and the first Christmas Carols Service. He reported that the association received a donation of GHC 10,000 from the Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah;

He urged members of the association to attend meetings and stay united, and also support the leadership to promote the welfare of members.

 A representative of the Welfare Section, Mrs. Gifty Kodzi, stated that every retiree from UCC was at heart and therefore, “the University has introduced a programme to pay visit to all retirees, and this occurs every year.” She added that the programme was currently in force to reach every retiree to express love and show support for their meritorious services to the University.  

Commending members of the Association, the Chairman of TEWU, Mr. Stephen Williams advised them to continue doing great things to support each other because in his view, “life begins at seventy (70),” and wished them “Afehyia pa”!

 The Acting Chairman of SSAUG, Mr. Charles Amos Odoom, on behalf his association assured the pensioners of their support. He said the SSAUG had already donated GHC 1,000.00 to support the Association.

 Thanking God for how far he has brought the entire membership of the Association, the Chairman for the occasion, Nana Kweku Enu III, Chief of Kokoado, commended the pioneers of the association for their hard work and toil. He charged the current leadership to continue the good work the pioneers started.

A Professor of Education Planning and Leadership at the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (I. E. P. A), Yaw Afari Ankomah, says there seem to be no political will to ensure the full implementation of the Language Policy in our school system.

“History of Ghana’s School Language Policy presents a picture of a struggle between rhetoric and implementation”, he noted. Prof. Ankomah said there was the urgent call for the policy to be implemented at all levels of education to create the necessary level playing field for all learners so all could equally enjoy the educational packages being rolled out by government. This, he said, would contribute successfully to achieve the Education 2030 Agenda as a nation

The eminent professor of Education Planning and Leadership made the call when he delivered his inaugural address on the topic: “The Struggle Between Rhetoric and Implementation in Ghana’s School Language Policy: Common Sense in the Balance”. Prof. Ankomah traced the School Language Policy to the era of Sir. Gordon Guggisberg in the 1925 to present and indicated that all there had been numerous changes. He described the current one as eclectic or blended mode where the children's first home language and Ghana's official language, English were used for instruction in school.

The essence of School Language Policy

“The essence of School Language Policy is to ensure effective communication between learner and teacher (facilitator) to enable effective learning to take place”, he explained. Prof. Ankomah indicated that there have been attempts to revise the current policy further, but added that “in my candid opinion the current eclectic mode takes care of the challenge that exists as a result of its flexible nature and hence requires no further revision”.

Explaining further, Prof. Ankomah said combining a familiar language with an unfamiliar one facilitated an understanding as it freely allowed for code-switching and co-mingling. “Bilingual instruction allows teachers and students to interact naturally” he noted. According to him, the affective domain, involving confidence, self-esteem and identity, was strengthened by the use of the first language, increasing motivation and initiative as well as creativity. “Bilingual programmes encourage learners to understand, speak, read and write in more than  one language and thereby improve proficiency equally,” he said.

He explained that, the School Language Policy has the primary function of facilitating effective teaching and learning through effective communication between the teacher or facilitator and the learners in the class. He mentioned two main parts of each version of the School Language Policy as foundational and learning consolidation, explaining that “at the foundational part, the familiar language the child comes to school (including pre-school) with which largely in the Ghanaian context is the mother tongue and the learning consolidation part is English, the official language of Ghana”.

Benefits of the School Language Policy

Enumerating some benefits of the implementation of the policy he said, “effective implementation of the policy at the early stages by using a language familiar to the child (usually the mother tongue) will provide the child with the avenue to understanding what the teacher says and thus be able to interact freely with the teacher”. He further said, it would provide the child with the foundation on which to build subsequent learning and also give the child confidence to participate freely in the teaching-learning experiences.

At the consolidation he said, “if local language is still used at the upper or higher levels instead of English, it will result in poor proficiency in English coupled with very limited English vocabulary emanating from no effective build-up of English words since there is no practice to make room for adding as well as making the learner destitute in the ability to effectively argue and to defend a point”.

Enforcement of School Language Policy

Prof. Ankomah cautioned that “If we continue as a nation to play this game of mere rhetoric with the school language policy without any clear and effective implementation as has happened over the years, we will continue to lose”. He recommended that there was the urgent need for the School Language Policy in its current flexible form to be fully enforced with immediately without further delay. He again called for an uncompromising and a visible enforcement of the use of English as the dominant medium of instruction from the upper primary level onwards. He said, the implementation plan he was envisaging was a simple one that has the teacher as the main and important resource required and therefore need not entail any major costs, if any at all.

“It is about using the appropriate language to teach based on the background of the learners at the early stages and using English predominantly at the upper primary level onwards, with the freedom to code-switch and code-mingle freely to facilitate understanding. This need not entail costs as such!”, he concluded.

A team from the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (GMDC) has paid a courtesy call on the Pro Vice-Chancellor.       

The Director of Health Services, Dr. Evans Ekanem, explained that the team was on campus to assess facilities for training House Officers and Physician Assistants at the University Hospital for the purposes of accreditation.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, expressed gratitude to them for visiting UCC to conduct the exercise. He assured the team that the University was prepared to embrace the outcome of the assessment. He also commended staff of the Dr. Ekanem for the efforts he and his staff were making towards delivering quality healthcare and also supporting health education in the University.  He gave the assured that the Management would continue to support UCC Hospital to become one of the best medical facilities in the country.

The leader of the Medical Team, Mr. Kwabena Adade, thanked the Pro Vice-Chancellor for granting his team audience and promised to carry the assessment for a good cause devoid of any doubt.