Education Minister urges stakeholders to make input into Public Universities Bill

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Education Minister, has urged stakeholders to submit their contributions to Parliament to enrich the Public University Bill 2020, which the government is seeking to pass.

He said for the first time in this country, academic freedom was going to be enshrined in the law.

“This is is the first time in the history of this country that the Public Universities Act or a University Act has included sections on academic freedom, never in the history of this country,” he stated.

The Minister further commended the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) for even improving on what the Government had envisaged in their submission on the Bill.

Dr Opoku Prempeh appealed on Tuesday in Accra during the meet the press series organised by the Ministry of Information to give an update on the planned re-opening of schools for final year students based on a Presidential directive on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the Government still welcomes contributions from stakeholders to make the Bill a better one; adding that Parliament had requested for memorandums for the Bill and that people should submit their contributions to make the Bill a better one.

“We will like to say, those who want to speak about the Bill should start from the genesis of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission Policy Paper and they will see why Government has gone the way it wants to go.”

The Public Universities Bill is seeking, among other things, to regulate the activities of public universities under one law.

It is seeking to change the structure of the governing councils of the public universities, with the majority of the members being appointed by the President.

Source: GNA