Minister inaugurates governing council of GIJ

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has inaugurated the governing council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) with a call on the institute to take advantage of technology to help drive the national development agenda.

He said technology had a strong impact on the media landscape especially at a time when the social media had limitless space.

He, however, cautioned the institute to be “mindful of the emerging global trends in this borderless medium of communication.”

Council members

The governing council, chaired by a government nominee, Professor Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh, has 10 other members.

They include Dr Wilberforce S. Dzisah, Rector of the institute and member, Mr Edwin Amankwah and Madam Monica Korkor Bleboo, both government nominees, Dr Kweku Rockson, representing the Ministry of Education, and Dr Margaret Ivy Amoakohene, Director of School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana.

Others are Mr Zakariah Tanko Musah, representing the institute’s Academic Board, Mrs Harriet Akua Karikari, representing Convocation, Mr Akwasi Owusu Agyeman, representing the media industry, Mrs Ajoa K.V. Yeboah-Afari, representing the alumni of the institute, and Mr Benjamin Avornyotse, president of the school Representative Council.

Responsibility

Dr Prempeh told the council members that it was their responsibility to, among others, ensure the attainment of the aims of the institute, determine the strategic direction of the institute and “promote applied research including provision of technology innovations and solutions to firms and businesses as part of the outreach activities of that GIJ.”

He said the council was also to ensure the conservation and augmentation of resources of the GIJ specifically in relation to matters affecting income or expenditure as well as also responsible for discipline in the institute.

Complaints

He said the ministry had received a number of complaints and petitions regarding the current management of the institute and charged the new council to provide strong leadership and resolve all those complaints as a matter of urgency to enhance the smooth running of the institute.

“Again, there have been several complaints in the public sphere over the general quality and standards of the journalism profession,” Dr Prempeh said, admitting that “not everyone who parades around as a journalist is a product of the institute.”

He said he expected the GIJ would continue to provide rigorous training of its students to ensure that the institute became and remained the “gold standard as far as training of journalists is concerned,” stressing that the role of the council was crucial in that direction.

Institute of Languages

In a related development, an 11-member governing council of the Ghana Institute of Languages  under the chairmanship of Dr Edward Prempeh was inaugurated by the minister