|
Universities urged to include sports into curricula
Tamale, Feb. 22, Ghanadot/GNA - President
John Agyekum Kufuor has urged the universities to consider
including sporting courses in their curricula to challenge
students to do more sports and not to regard sporting
activities as residual activity.
He also asked the universities to develop more training
programmes for sport professionals to give the industry the
needed expertise to blossom.
President Kufuor made the call in a speech read on his
behalf by the Minister for Education, Science and Sports,
Professor Dominic Fobih at the opening of the 20th Ghana
Universities Sports Association (GUSA) Games in Tamale on
Thursday.
President Kufuor noted that sporting activities were very
relevant to the unity, peace and development of country and
has numerous benefits to the nation.
Sports, he said, also serve as a source of foreign exchange
earner, an opportunity to market the potentials of the
country and the promotion of tolerance and discipline.
The President explained that his government's commitment to
the development of sport had been demonstrated through the
hosting of "CAN 2008" and the construction of two new
stadiums in Sekondi ad Tamale and the renovation of two
others in Accra and Kumasi.
President Kufuor, however, said, "As a country, we need to
do more to institutionalise sporting culture in our body
politic".
He suggested that sporting activities should start from the
home and be seen as part of ‘our regular life styles’.
President Kufuor said that the improvement of the economy
had brought about some changing living styles and tastes of
Ghanaians, adding, "Some of these changes could be
detrimental to the health of the people and these could only
be addressed through sporting activities to engender a
healthy living".
In a welcoming address, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the
University for Development Studies (UDS), Professor Kaku
Sagary Nokoe, said sports played a pivotal role in the
prevention and management of degenerative diseases that
plague the youth and the larger community.
He therefore urged coaches and other sport stakeholders to
run comprehensive health and fitness programmes to
complement the efforts of the government to reduce the
rising lifestyle related illnesses among students and the
various communities.
The Vice-Chancellor encouraged the visiting teams to work
out a strategy to visit some of the tourist sites in the
Northern parts of the country such as the Mole National Park
at Damongo, the Larabanga Mosque and mystic stone all in the
Northern Region and the Paga Crocodile Pond, Tongo whistling
rocks, architectural designs in the Upper East Region and
the slave sites and routes of the Upper West region.
GNA
|
