#UCCDecides : Nominations Open For SRC, L/NUGS & JCRC Positions

Nominations have been opened for various positions at the Students' Representative Council [SRC], Local chapter of the National Union of Ghana Students [L/NUGS] and the Junior Common Room Committee [JCRC] of the University of Cape Coast [UCC].

The positions at the UCC - SRC include:
President and Vice President
Secretary
Coordinating Secretary
Public Relations Officer
General Sports Secretary
Treasurer

Positions at the Local NUGS office include:
President
Secretary
Women's Commissioner [WUCOM]
Positions at the JCRC include:
President and Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Organizer
SRC Representative [Rep 1 & Rep 2]

Turnout at the 2017 elections was ten thousand two hundred and sixty nine [10,269], a short fall of four hundred and thirty-one votes compared to the 2016 election.

ATL FM - CBS brings you updates on electoral process, various halls, SRC and L/NUGS aspirants throughout the 2018 elections. Follow the #UCCDecides on social media.

Source : ATLFMONLINE

“Universities should aim at societal development”- UCC Pro VC

Pro-Vice Chancellor of University of Cape Coast, Professor George K.T Oduro, has challenged the various universities in Ghana to implement initiatives which are aimed at developing society.

According to him, most of the initiatives implemented and monitored by the African societies are done with the welfare of the investors in mind, without due consideration to the contribution of the project to the development of the society.

“ We cannot talk about sound economic development of the nation without talking about the role of water and hygiene because we need healthy people to run this economy and make it healthy. I also want to say that universities have come to stage were we cannot do things without careful consideration to what happens in our environment. It does appear that Ghanaians and for that matter, Africans monitor and evaluate projects to satisfy our funders but in addition to satisfying the demands, we also have to consider how it is contributing to our development”.

Speaking at the opening session of a five-day workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Water Sanitation and Hygiene Systems
(WASH) organized by the Department of Chemistry of University of Cape Coast, for representatives from five Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, Professor Oduro commended the initiative and encouraged other universities to emulate this act.

He further urged representatives from the participating MMDAs to develop an intricate commitment to the workshop to effectively implement the skills acquired from the workshop in their various MMDAs.

Present for the workshop were representatives from the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, Sunyani Municipal Assembly and Abura Aseibu Kwamankese District.

The workshop is under the theme, Gender Sensitive Monitoring and Evaluation of Wash Activities and Services.

ATL FM NEWS

81% of Law Students failed 2017 Bar Examination

A total of 206 law students are to repeat the entire course after failing the final Bar exams at the Ghana School of Law.

Another 177 students have been referred in one or two papers, Myjoyonline.com has learnt.
This represents 81% failure for 2017.
Out of 474 students who sat for the 2017-2018 final exams, only 91 students representing 19% were deemed to have passed and will be called to the Bar.

The mass failure by the students comes at a time Parliament is seeking to legalize the entrance exams and interview processes instituted as part of the admission procedures into the Ghana School of Law.

The General Legal Council, the body that oversees legal education and profession in Ghana has mounted a vehement defence for the maintenance of entrance exams.
It argues the exams and interviews are to ensure higher standards in legal education.
But Chief crusader against the entrance exams Prof Kwaku Asare insists the entrance exams and interviews at the Ghana School of Law are illegal.

At the moment, there is an LI in Parliament currently going through a mandatory 21-day period before it will mature into law.
If members of the House are unable to raise two-thirds majority to kick against the LI it will automatically mature into law.
Meanwhile, critics of the entrance exams say the mass failure at the Bar exams is just one example of why the status quo must be abolished.

“The madness of the unruly GLC continues unabated as only 91 out of 474 LLB graduates are deemed qualified to be called to the Bar.
“One more proof that the entrance examinations and interviews are not just illegal and unethical but they are also entirely non-diagnostic.

That is, the argument that they are designed to select quality graduates must fail on this performance report.
“Further, this is proof that the Bar exam is a poor assessment tool or that the Ghana School of Law is incapable of training LLB graduates or both.
“Think about it —— only 91 out of the 1,200 law graduates in this cohort are being called to the Bar!!!!” Prof Asare said on his facebook wall.

Credit :Myjoyonline.com

Be Mindful Of What You Eat– Food Science Scholar

A Professor of food science at the Department of Vocational and Technical Education [VOTEC] of the University of Cape Coast [UCC] Sarah Darkwa is calling on the general public to place utmost priority on their food choice since that can benefit or harm them.

Professor Darkwa says Ghanaians should consider going back to indigenous foods and condiment because they contain better nutritional values than most of the foreign and other packaged food products.
She added that there are some nutrients which are contained in artificial condiments which if not avoided or taken in minute quantities may put individual health at a high risk of a system failure.

Professor Darkwa made the call while delivering her inaugural address on the topic:
Food Science; A Sweet Killer of Nutritional Well Being, at the University of Cape Coast.
She said as individuals, “it is important to be good custodians of our bodies”, adding “whatever we take in as food, be it small or large, we need to ensure that it will promote good health in our body”.

Stressing on the use of spices and condiments, Prof Darkwa said consumers need to make the right choice in order to avert health implications.
“Spices and condiments are used in our everyday cooking to add taste, flavor and sometimes colour to food. But are we taking the natural spices or the artificial condiments that are usually parked with monosodium glutamine, sodium chloride and preservatives?
When our grandmothers and mothers passed on, they took away the natural condiments such as ‘prekese’, onions, which they cooked with when some of us were growing up. This generation and that of our children have shifted completely from using the natural spices our mothers used to all kinds of artificial spices and condiments which in our minds makes the food sweet, but in reality, behind the sweetness, kills us slowly”. Prof. Darkwa bemoaned.

According to her, there is the need for consumers to check the nutritional values of packaged food products in order to make a well informed decision about what they take in. She also stressed on the need for food producers to adhere to strict hygienic conditions in their production process to prevent contamination.

Prof. Darkwa further revealed that, there are some natural food product in Ghana which has rich nutritional values, but are often relegated to the background at the expense of importing foreign ones that drain state coffers and possess health threat to consumers especially infants.

She said “the orange flesh sweet potato, provides high level of vitamin A to women and young children. Just one small balled roots provides 100% of the recommended daily dosage of vitamin ‘A’”.

She added that “in Ghana, infants, during their postnatal visits, are giving drops of vitamin ‘A’, imported into Ghana with hard earned money. This orange fleshed sweet potato is very rich in vitamin ‘A’ and it could help our income”.

Professor (Mrs.) Sarah Darkwa with her family
Professor (Mrs.) Sarah Darkwa until her inaugural lecture, elevating her to the status of a full Professor has taught courses in Food Science, Nutrition and Environmental Science since 2000.

She holds a BSc in Agriculture Science from the University of Ghana, an MPhil in Food Science from the University of Ghana and a PhD in Environmental Science, specializing in the area of Environmental systems and Risk Management from the State University of New York in the USA.

She has taught and successfully supervised many undergraduate students’ projects and theses. Her research interests are in Food Science, Nutrition and Health, and Environmental Systems and Risk Management.
Prof Darkwa served as the Head of department of the Vocational and Technical Education from 2010 to 2013 and is currently the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology Education Studies of the University of Cape Coast.

Source : Kojo Dei & Joseph Amoah / ATL FM NEWS

UMaT renamed George Grant University of Mines and Technology

President Akufo-Addo has officially renamed the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) to the George Grant University of Mines and Technology, after the first President of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).

The Tarkwa-based tertiary institution was renamed on Friday, January 12, 2018 at a special congregation held at the school to install former President John Kufuor as its Chancellor.

Kufuor, who commissioned the school back in August 2005, will be its first Chancellor.
President Nana Addo, who announced the renaming of the university, said: “It is only fitting that this great modest man who can lay a legitimate claim of being the father of modern Ghanaian nationalist should be properly honoured by a grateful posterity by us who are heirs of the freedom he so violently fought for especially by the citizens of this great Western Region.”

“I appreciate the special moment this will be for me, a descendant of all the myriad of persons who assembled at Saltpond under his president , the lost United Gold Coast Convention UGCC on that fateful Saturday 4th August 1947 when the power of Ghanaian freedom and independence was nominated to be the president who will have the privilege to assent to this decision,” he added.

Chairman of the University’s Council, Dr. Stephen S. Yirenkyi, in his address pleaded with the President Akufo-Addo to allocate funds to the school for the completion of legacy projects, incompletion is impeding teaching and learning.

“I humbly request that the President commits adequate funds for the expansion of this University for the completion the uncompleted projects which are fast deteriorating,” he said.
While calling on the government and the University Staff to support Kufuor govern the school, Dr. Yirenkyi noted that the new Chancellor had an enormous task to enable the institution “continue to stand tall.”

“Today the University is seeing a new phase. The Chancellor has an enormous responsibility to make this University continue to stand tall and maintain its positions as the best public-funded University in Ghana. I am also optimistic that he will be given the needed support by the President and his government, Captains of the mining and the allied industries and rank and file of the university to make his work as the chancellor a pleasant one,” he said.
Originally known as the Tarkwa Technical Institute in 1952 when it was first established, the school became a fully fledged University in November 2004 by an Act of Parliament (Act 677).

About George Grant

George Alfred Grant, popularly known as Paa Grant was a merchant and politician.
As a political activist, he was a founder and the first president of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1947.

Grant was educated at Wesleyan School in Cape Coast and through private tuition given by Joseph D. Abraham, a wealthy merchant friend of his father’s.

Grant was subsequently employed in the timber trade, first at Axim and then for five years in the Ivory Coast.
In 1896, he established his own firm, George Grant and Company.He prospered as a timber merchant, with a flourishing export business, at a time when the trade was dominated by European companies.

In 1926 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, representing Sekondi. Grant was also a member of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society and was instrumental in many development projects including introducing street lighting and pipe-borne water to Sekondi and Axim.