Professor Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, the Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), has stated the readiness of the Commission to facilitate the teaching and learning of German in the country.
He said that could be done by creating an enabling environment and facilitating the establishment of the right institutions with the right resources for many Ghanaians to develop interest in the teaching of the language.
Prof Jinapor said this when he hosted Madam Sivine Jansen, the Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy in Accra.
The delegation’s visit to the GTEC was aimed at deepening the already existing ties between the Embassy and the GTEC.
It is also to discuss moves to speed up the acquisition of accreditation to start a Bachelor of Art programme in the German Language at the University of Education of Winneba.
The Director General mentioned some of the benefits of learning the German Language, such as helping many Ghanaian students to go and study in that country, helping many people to travel to do business with ease in Germany, and promoting the development of tourism between the two countries.
Prof Jinapor urged the Embassy to speed up efforts towards the attainment of the right infrastructure and personnel with the requisite teaching skills, as well as the appropriate teaching and learning resources that would promote the teaching and learning of the Language.
He commended the German government for its efforts towards poverty reduction and national development.
Madam Jansen, in her address, said everything was being done to ensure that many Ghanaians had the opportunity to study the German Language.
She said efforts were being made to extend the teaching and learning of the German Language in all Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to create an opportunity for them to have the chance to travel to Germany for further studies or work in various industries, and vice versa.
The Deputy Head of Mission stated that measures were being put in place to meet all the requirements for the accreditation process for the running of the bachelor course at Winneba.
The University of Education Winneba has since 2005 been teaching German students pursuing French as their first language and German as a second language.
It is based on this that the German Embassy is working very hard to ensure that some Ghanaian students also have the opportunity to study German for a bachelor’s degree.