The Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MESTI) is considering the amendment of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Act to give a strong backing to the CSIR College of Science and Technology (CCST) to function optimally.
The CSIR established the College with a goal to increasing the scientific capability to drive Ghana’s socio-economic development through science and technology application in line with the Council’s mandate.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Sector Minister, who announced this at the second congregation of the College, applauded the Director General and Management Committee of CSIR for establishing the College, and said it was well positioned to address the challenges of industry, businesses, academia and local communities.
Twenty-nine students who pursued various masters’ programmes at both the Accra and Kumasi campuses graduated at a colourful ceremony attended by their families, well-wishers and the Academic Board.
The University of Cape Coast, to which the College is affiliated, was represented by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, and Mr Jeff Teye Emmanuel Onyame, the Registrar.
Dr Afriyie commended the CSIR for using existing structures and facilities at its disposal to train higher and better human resources needed for national development.
“This model used in running the College is very laudable as it will help to produce graduates with the needed practical skills and knowledge required by the industry at a least cost to the government in terms of infrastructure needs for establishing such a quality tertiary institution,” he said.
He said the approach by the Government to place science and technology application at the centre of development was to ensure that science, technology and innovation were mainstreamed at all levels of socio-economic activities.
Dr Afriyie, therefore, appealed to the Governing Council to ensure the College focused on its core mandate of training post-graduate scientists to support the agenda of the Ministry to make science the fulcrum of national development.
Prof Mark Appiah, the President of the College, said it would continue to be creative and innovative in training students whose skills would be needed in the job market through the appropriate research.
“We are more than hopeful that this can be done because the CCST is collaborating with CSIR, an organisation that has the largest aggregation of scientists and technologists in Ghana and also endowed with the state-of-the-art facilities and field stations dotted throughout the length and breadth of Ghana,” he said.
Education, Prof Appiah said, was a partnership of mutual commitment and that the College had fulfilled its side of the partnership by providing the graduates with the appropriate skills and building attitudes that could enhance their contributions to sustainable development.
Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, the Paramount Chief of Kumawu, who represented the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, said it was gratifying for a premier research institution like the CSIR to use its available human capital and other resources to advance science, technology and innovation.
He congratulated the graduates for the feat and urged them to use the knowledge acquired to contribute to the Government’s Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District One Factory initiative to enhance the country’s economic development.
