‘Treat students with decency, respect’

The Director of the Institute of Distance and e-Learning (IDeL) of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Professor Francis Owusu-Mensah, has charged administrators and managers of its study centres across the country to treat the students with decency and respect.

He advised them against exhibiting bossy and uncouth behaviour which he said could drive the students away and affect the programme.

He said most of the students pursing the distance education programmes were adults, some even much older than the administrators, and as such they should not be treated anyhow.

According to him, even though the UEW was the pacesetter in distance education in the country, it was facing stiff competition from other universities that were now offering distance education as an alternative to the regular programmes.

Lead

Speaking at a one-week review workshop for the administrators and managers of the study centre at Abuakwa in the Ashanti Region, Prof. Owusu-Mensah noted that distance education had become an alternative to regular university programmes and was providing access to tertiary education for most people.

He said as leaders of the distance education in the country, “we want to maintain the lead and it would require a lot of high professionalism on your part to remain the preferred choice.”

Access to education

He said owing to the large number of students seeking admission to the country’s universities with limited infrastructure, distance education was becoming an alternative for tertiary education.

Prof. Owusu-Mensah said there was, therefore, the need for the managers to treat the students well and turn them into ambassadors of the institute to propagate the good news to others.

He said the students who patronised their centres were the best assets of the institute and should be handled with utmost respect.

Review

He said the workshop was to afford the administrators and managers the opportunity to review their activities over the year and plan for the future and also to streamline the roles of the officers.

He said the administrators should be able to take certain decisions on their own and not to always run to Winneba at the least thing.

Prof. Owusu-Mensah also entreated the administrators to monitor both tutors and students to ensure that they were attending tutorials as required of them.