Reconsider position that makes D7 failed grade

The Chairman of the Council of Independent Universities, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has appealed to the government to rethink its position on grade D7, which renders senior high school graduates ineligible to enter university.

Speaking at the ninth national delegates congress of the Private Universities Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) at the Valley View University at Oyibi, near Accra, Prof. Yankah urged the government to take a second look at grade D7 and remove the stigma and impression of it being a fail.
He stated: “Several thousands of SHS graduates cannot enter the university merely because they have been rendered disqualified by one or two D7 grades instead of credit, on their SHS result slips”.
The congress will be used to elect new national officers to steer the affairs of the association for another academic year.

Delegates

The five-day congress is on the theme: “Raising Critical and Problem Solving Leaders to Impact Generations- the Role of Private Universities” and is being attended by delegates from accredited private universities across the country.
“When did D7 become a failed grade, who declared it a failed grade?” the chairman of the Council of Independent Universities asked?
Professor Yankah proposed that the worst thing the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) could do was to leave the admission of D7 to the discretion of respective universities; after all, D was admissible to the university in the old system.
He, therefore, commended the government’s decision to now allow them in polytechnics, but said it should be extended to universities and the universities should also exercise their own discretion in respective admission processes, so long as requisite grades obtained were not failed grades.

Student congresses

He noted that over the past decade student congresses had moved from raising critical issues about nation building and related matters into battlegrounds, and instead of seeking student and national welfare, they had become sites for violence and physical welfare.
He said armed security had often been called in to restore peace and order; arrests have been made by the police; students have been detained, whereas universities and parents have often stepped in to release children from detention, all in the name of a student congress.

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of tertiary education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, commended the outgoing PUSAG executive for projecting the genuine concerns of its members, as well as collaborating with the ministry to address their challenges.
He said the Student Movement had a great history in Ghana, where students played a vital role in the drafting of the 1992 Constitution, proposed the Students Loan Trust Fund and the National Service Scheme, among others.
On behalf of the government and the Ministry of Education, Mr Ablakwa pledged his support to assist the various student groups in the country to achieve their objectives.

Commendation

The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, in an address read on his behalf by Mr Isaac Nii Djanmah Vanderpuye, Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, commended all private universities for their contributions towards the socio-economic and manpower development of the country.
He noted that indiscipline among the youth was a worrying trend which should seriously engage the attention of parents, guardians, teachers and indeed all stakeholders.

Mr Afotey-Agbo explained that indiscipline eventually destroyed the moral fibre of society.
“We need to wage a relentless crusade to nip these evil practices in the bud so that we can build a society based on very high moral values”, he added.
Other activities lined up for the congress include entrepreneurial seminar, relationship talk, health talk on Hepatitis B and cervical cancer and a fitness walk.