The University for Development Studies (UDS) has dispatched its level 100 students to various communities in the Northern, Savannah, North East and Oti regions to undertake a community based education service.
A total of 3,954 students has been deployed to 18 districts in the four regions to take part in the University’s Third Trimester Field Practical Programme (TTFPP) for a period of seven weeks to identify developmental challenges within their communities.
The Vice Chancellor of UDS, Professor Seidu Alhassan, speaking at an orientation ceremony for the students before their departure at Bimbila, said the TTFPP forms part of the academic activities of UDS and sought to blend academic work with outside world by helping students to understand living and working in deprived communities.
He advised the students to make positive impacts by assisting in community services in the areas of teaching school pupils, health care and environmental sanitation among others in their host communities.
He also asked them to be disciplined and abide by rules and regulations in the host communities.
Nanumba North Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Abdulai Yakubu, commended the leadership of the UDS for instituting the TTFPP and said most District Assemblies had benefited from the reports written by students in their short and medium term development planning.
He said “The communities you are deployed to possess a wide range of relevant indigenous information and you have to work with the community structures and members in general to generate ideas, coordinate their thoughts and then present the issues and facts in an intellectual and acceptable manner for the attention of duty bearers for further intervention”.
A BSc Nutrition student, Priscilla Ama Kyerewah, a student who had been sent to a community in the Nkwanta North District of the Oti region on her expectations said “I expect to have potable water, electricity and other basic amenities in my community but if there are none, we will have no option but to cope with what will get. I believe the experience will be more interesting”.
