By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, Nov 02, GNA - Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, Vice-Chancellor, Central University, has advocated for a Committee of Experts to develop Ghana’s Human Capital policy framework.
He said primary responsibility of such a Committee would be to engage the Communities of production, consumption and creation; government, industry, youth and academia in discussion on what skills and knowledge the country truly needs over the next 10-25 years.
He said the Committee of Experts should commission and use research findings on global high-end industry and commerce/corporate movements and innovations, regional realities, comparative and competitive advantages and behavioral imperatives.
He suggested that the Committee of Experts might be domiciled at the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) – given the NDPC’s constitutional mandate.
Prof Puplampu said this in Accra in his presentation at the sixth National Development Forum, organised by NDPC.
The forum, which registered about 200 participants including stakeholders in Human Capital Development, was held on the theme: "A Critical Look at Ghana’s Human Capital Development Agenda: Where do we go from here?”.
Prof Puplampu, who delivered the keynote address, stated that Ghana should wake up to the fact that human capacity was the solution to social problems and that human capacity was built through education.
“The education system which does not progressively lead us to problem solution is ‘Education for its sake’ not Human Capital Development”.
He underscored the need to look at this matter holistically and end-to-end, saying, Ghana’s educational investments must create strategic linkages to result in resourceful innovators who would bend their efforts towards problem solution.
Prof Puplampu further stated that integrated country level systems and frameworks were necessary to give operational voice and reality to the human capital- education-economic development nexus, adding that “This is what I call the stakeholder model of Human Capital Development”.
Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampah, Director- General, NDPC said in developing a human capital index, the World Bank places priority on three major dimensions: survival, education and health.
He said despite Ghana’s past achievement in the area of education and health, much gaps still remains.
He said in finding lasting solutions to these issues, there should be answers to what partnership should be promoted among government, industry players and research institutions.
Dr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of Ishmael Yamson and Associates, recounted that when South Africa wrote their 30-year development plan, the very first item on that document was about the values and behaviours that characterized South Africans in delivering that 30-year plan.
He said as a country there was a need to find the values and behaviours that Ghanaians need to cultivate as a people.
Dr Yamson, who was also the chairman for the occasion, touched on the need to depoliticize issues in the country, describing it as a major factor that hinders Ghana’s developmental agenda.
GNA
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