The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has commissioned the long-awaited ultramodern training resort and conference centre of the College of Distance Education (CoDE) at Agona Nyakrom in the Agona West Municipality to further the school’s transformational agenda.
The facility, painted yellow colour, and sited on a 50-acre piece of land, will be used to complement the training of students, and for the faculty to run short courses and extramural events of the university.
It has been designed to have 162 standard bedrooms, 16 executive bedrooms, 10 seminar rooms, auxiliary facilities such as shops, indoor recreational spaces, a kitchen, and a multipurpose recreational court.
The training centre, which is the first phase of a bigger project, is expected to be expanded later to make it more suitable for running various programmes as a satellite campus, especially in health and related fields.
The project started in 2012 and was expected to be completed in three years after Okofo Okatakyi Nyarko Eku X, the Omanhen of Agona Nyakrom, gifted the school a 50-acre parcel of land in 2007.
However, it travelled for more than 10 years due to various challenges including funding.
Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, Vice Chancellor of UCC, indicated that the facility would help provide quality, equitable and inclusive education that would empower graduates to be independent and responsible citizens with passion for job creation.
“The training and resort centre is not merely a brick-and-mortar structure. It symbolises the commitment of the University to holistic education, industry relevance and sustainable development,” he said.
He indicated that beyond the educational significance, activities at the centre would also contribute to the growth of tourism and sell the potential of the community to the world.
“The economic opportunities and job creation that will arise from this venture will have a transformative impact on the lives of the people in this community,” he stressed.
Prof Boampong reiterated the UCC’s determination to complete other innovative facilities to support the training of creative and entrepreneurial future leaders.
“The University is ready to nurture a generational cohort that will work assiduously to create their own jobs and further team up with talented individuals to develop solutions that would help solve societal problems and challenges,” he stressed.
He thanked all stakeholders, including his predecessors, and the chiefs and people of the community for their contributions to the success of the project.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister for Education, who commissioned the building, observed that the project would serve both the university and the community very well.
He charged UCC to collaborate with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure their host communities benefitted tremendously from the school’s presence.
He for instance, urged them to extend their Neighbourhood Academic Initiative to every community which had a branch campus.
“That is your security because if the community prospers because of your presence, they are the ones who will guard the facility for you,” he noted.
Touching on the agenda of his Ministry, he said it was focused on creating a more robust public education regime from basic school to the university and was working to transform public schools at all levels to ensure Ghana had the best public schools in the world.
Dr Adutwum indicated, for example, that through the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Project (GALOP), the Ministry was providing extra financing for schools through learning grants.
“We want to make sure parents who send their children to private schools, do that as a matter of choice and not because they don’t have a choice,” he said.
He noted that in education, it was critical to provide access, improve quality and make education relevant to the needs of the country.
“I believe the better days of our nation are seriously ahead of us and not behind us. We realise that education must eradicate poverty, and that is the agenda we have set for ourselves,” he stated.
Okofo Okatakyi Nyarko Eku, who chaired the function, appealed to the university not to limit the facility to a resort centre but also run some distance education programmes from there.
“I am aware that currently, the university runs distance education programme in Diploma in Education from a rented premises in Swedru and other places.
“I hope that the university will transfer these programmes to this centre in Agona Nyakrom where participants can easily be provided with accommodation which the university already has,” he advised.
The Omanhene further expressed the hope, that having been a primary producer of agriculture for decades, the two secondary schools and now, the university facility would help to transform the community’s economy.
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