The University of Cape Coast has been earmarked as one of the universities to be piloted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a Centre of excellence to promote quality and excellence of higher education for Africa.
This project forms part of an initiative by UNESCO to highlight science, innovation & technology as the driving force of the economic development of African countries.
The Director General of UNESCO, Her Excellency Irina Bokova disclosed this at a meeting with the management of the university as part of an official visit to Cape Coast.
Her Excellency Madam Bokova gave assurance that UNESCO would continue to partner the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) and the Institute of Education to improve the quality of basic education in Ghana. She added that UNESCO would continue to collaborate with institutions of higher education such as UCC via Open Education Resource to extend education to young people and adults in various communities so that they could contribute towards the development of the country. Her Excellency, Madam Bokova commended UCC for playing a crucial role in all aspects our national aspirations.
The Director General of UNESCO also praised Ghana for its democratic credentials and the efforts by the country to achieve the millennium development goals. She stressed that “Economic growth must be accompanied by a very focused effort to bridge inequalities among the people, reaching to vulnerable and disabled people.” She finally expressed satisfaction at significant progress of the nation in creating gender parity and increasing access to education from the basic to the tertiary level.
The Minister for Education and immediate past Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang who accompanied Her Excellency Madam Bokova explained that the visit to UCC was to acknowledge the university as an active stakeholder and added that “UCC has been contributing towards achieving UNESCO’s mandate of Education, Science, Culture and Communication.”
For his part, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole thanked the Director General of UNESCO for the historical visit to UCC and expressed confidence that the partnership between the two institutions would be enhanced to achieve its intended objective. He assured the Director General that UCC would continue to collaborate with UNESCO to create opportunities for Ghanaians to get access to quality education.
source: ucc.edu.gh
