Assistant Registrar in charge of admissions and a governance expert, Edem Yaw Deikuma, says the program, which was supported by the Ghana Education Service (GES), provided a great learning experience for students. The programmed involved debate on key political and electoral topics among Senior High School students. “The arguments were fantastic and you would realized that the competition among students was very keen which shows that they had knowledge on the subject and on the electoral process and so we will say that the program has been successful,” Mr Deikumah observed.

According to him, for Ghana to strengthen its democratic credentials students must be trained to accept important democratic principles. “We plan using the Governance students of the university for observation, educating the general public, churches and organizations” in a bid to deepen public knowledge about the electoral process, he revealed. Edem Deikumah has however advised the general public to help maintain the peace Ghana has enjoyed all this years by tolerating one another and showing love to each other especially during the general election.

He called on the voting public and political parties to embrace peace no matter which group election results in the November elections would favour. “Ghana is poor, we are importing everything and we cannot continue like this. Where do we go if there is war? Ghana is an island of peace in West Africa and if we joke with this and put the country into disrepute then will be a problem,” Deikumah told a gathering of students.

Some of the participating students, in an interview with Joy News said they were glad that the university brought such a program to educate the public by tapping into abilities of students. Students suggested that the initiative should not be a one-off event but a constant quadrennial event at least. 

Activities
The debate which was carried in out in phases began at Mawuli Senior High School in Ho last Saturday which brought together six participating schools and over 200 participants. The debate was under the topic: “The electoral commission is the sole determinant of elections in Ghana”. At the end of the first phase, Kpedze Senior High School emerged winners with Wallahs Academy and Sunrise Christian School taking up the second and third positions respectively

The second phase was held at the Kedzebi Senior High School saw an impressive performance from the participants by St Paul’s Senior High School in the Ketu South Municipality, Keta Secondary School and Anlo Technical Institute. St Paul’s emerged the winners.

EP University, in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service in the Volta Region took advantage of the event to carry out career counseling for the students.
The event was attended by a huge audience comprising both students and the general public.

Source: Ivy Setordjie | Joy News | Volta Region Date: 16-03-2016