Government has walked the talk — Hannah Tetteh
A number of bilateral agreements reached between Ghana and her development partners have tremendous prospects for national development, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hannah Tetteh, has said.
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Ms Tetteh did not mention the specific bilateral agreements but said they were indications of the confidence of the international community in the prospects of the country’s development.
Speaking on governance under the Mahama administration at a public forum marking the first anniversary of the administration of President John Mahama in Accra yesterday, Ms Tetteh said invitations extended to President Mahama from around the world, including visits to the United States of America and Britain, were testimonies of the credibility of the President.
The public forum was on the theme: “Advancing the Better Ghana Agenda: Prospects for 2014.”
The minister said the success story of the government should not be told by political actors alone but by players in national life.
She said the government "has walked the talk" as the President has, for instance, appointed a physically challenged person to his cabinet.
Communications
Taking his turn, the Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane-Boamah, touted the government's achievements in the sector, saying the government was establishing community information centres across the country, adding that so far 16 of such centres had been completed.
The minister said the government was also vigorously pursuing the e-justice system, which the Judicial Service and the Attorney General's Department were taking advantage of.
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The Minister of State in charge of Financial and Allied Institutions, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, traced the economic challenges to 2008 when President John Atta Mills inherited a weak economy but said by dint of hard work, some appreciable successes had been achieved.
He said in spite of the depreciation of the cedi and other challenges, investor interest in the country remained high.
The Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mr Mahama Ayariga, served notice that beginning this year, the government would take the fight to its opponents.
"Life is better now," he said, but was quick to add that "this country has challenges which the government is working on."
Education
Giving an update on the educational sector, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, said the 2012 electioneering had been driven by the education agenda.
However, he said, the choice of President Mahama meant that the people believed in a system supported by the pillars of quality, access and affordability.
With that in mind, Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said the government had proceeded on the educational front in a manner that addressed the expectations of the people.
Achievements, he said, had been made in the areas of access, addressing the street-children back to school programme, elimination of schools under trees, provision of teaching and learning materials, distribution of over 100,000 computers to students and schools, as well as the provision of public universities for each region.
In the past one year, he said, education in the country had remained strong and was improving contrary to the picture being painted by opponents of Ghana’s education as being in crisis.
“The provision of universities is a reflection of access and equity on the ground,” he said.
Mr Okudzeto-Ablakwa said research carried out by the Ministry of Education in the seven out of the 10 regions had shown that there was a problem with the proper deployment of teachers.
In a good number of cases, he said, there was over-staffing in the regions, but there were schools with no teachers, a situation which, according to him, called for a rationalisation of posting of teachers and a need for reposting.
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He cautioned public figures and other stakeholders to desist from influencing the reposting of teachers when the time came.
The ultimate focus of the country’s educational system, he said, must be to have a functional system which produced graduates capable of coming out with “home-grown” solutions to the country’s problems.