The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought up issues of concern for other nations, particularly those whose citizens have been caught up in the conflict.
Ghana is one such country as it has over 1000 students in Ukraine.
On Sunday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, at a press conference in Accra, assuaged the fears Ghanaians were entertaining about the safety of their compatriots in Ukraine by assuring them that the government would do all it could to evacuate them from the trouble area.
With Ghanaians in Ukraine being mostly university students, she announced that about 460 of them had already crossed to neighbouring countries like Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Czech Republic.
Yesterday, 17 students out of 527 Ghanaians who had fled Ukraine arrived back home to reunite with their families.
In an interaction later with some parents and guardians of Ghanaians yet to arrive in Ghana from Ukraine, Ms Ayorkor Botchwey reiterated her call on Sunday on Ghanaian citizens to appreciate the importance to register with Ghanaian Embassies abroad when they travel there so they could receive the necessary assistance during emergency situations.
The Ghanaian Times commends all the efforts the government is making to bring home safely Ghanaians stranded in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries, particularly in seeking the assistance of global organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration in that regard.
In the midst of the efforts the government is doing to evacuate the students and other Ghanaians back home is one important concern raised by parents and guardians of students who have had to cut short their education in Ukraine and flee home.
This is legitimate because in spite of the fact that they are concerned about the safety of their children and wards, they must equally be concerned with their education too.
These are mostly students who were not given the opportunity to school here in their own country and so the parents and guardians had to take them abroad.
The parents have paid money and the students are at various levels of the courses, mostly medicine, meaning their careers and future are at stake.
Various events bring problems in their train that call for solutions otherwise some lives may be ruined.
With reference to this, the government must find ways to organise a special programme for these students to complete their courses and see to what can be done to forestall such a situations in future.
The Ghanaian Times wishes to reiterate a point it raised in its editorial of Monday that the government should expand education in the country, especially medical training, because it should now be clear that a good number of the country’s youth would like to pursue medicine when given the opportunity.
No doubt, some people would cherish schooling abroad, but most of the students in Ukraine have been forced there because the Ghanaian school system slighted their performance and thus disregarded their potential.
There is the need, therefore, to overhaul the local education system by way of expansion and review of entry requirements and related policies.
After all, even persons who have not attained formal secondary education are able to pursue university education through mature student admission arrangement and some of these students perform marvelously well.
This, therefore, means that persons who have attained senior high school education and at least obtained above-average pass are capable of doing well if given the opportunity.
Thus, Ghana has to rethink some of the decisions or policies in the education system, particularly with regard to the careers and the future of the youth.
