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The 61st Annual New Year School has proposed a change of the national Election Day from December 7 to the first Thursday of November of every election year. The participants said the December 7 day, as currently established under the 1992 Constitution, put undue pressure on the incoming and outgoing governments and that a change in date would allow more time for political power transfer after-elections. In a nine-point communiqu� issued at the end of the school last Friday, the participants said a change in the electoral date was important and should be considered during the upcoming constitutional review process. The school, which was attended by more than 100 participants from all over the country, was designed to create a platform for deliberation on topical national issues. Topics discussed include the electoral process, political parties and the media, how to strengthen local governance for development, peace, security and human rights, and challenges facing the Ghanaian youth. The communiqu� also charged all government agencies tasked with the responsibility of capturing demographic data in the country to provide data that would enable the Electoral Commission (EC) to accurately produce a new and credible voter�s register that should be updated for elections. It charged the government to, as a matter of urgency, resource the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CRRAJ), to intensify the education of the Ghanaian public on their fundamental human rights and freedoms as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. "The education should be multi-sectoral, involving the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), civil society organisations and the media," the communiqu� said. It called for the training and re-training of law enforcement agencies on new approaches of upholding and enforcing human rights of Ghanaians at all levels of the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies in the discharge of their duties. The communiqu� urged political parties to embark on campaigns devoid of insults, violence and falsehood and concentrate on national issues and also strengthen their internal democratic structures to ensure transparency, accountability and effective participation at all levels. The government, it said, should enforce accountability and promote regular interaction between the district assemblies and members of the communities. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, it added, should co-ordinate the establishment and training of all institutions offering capacity-building initiatives in the ministries, departments and agencies. On enhancing the capacity of the youth for national development, the communiqu� urged the government to expedite action on the formulation of a national youth policy and adequately resource the National Youth Council to implement its policies and programmes. Turning the spotlight on education, the communiqu� called for the inclusion in the school curriculum lessons on marriage, family life and societal values, as well as skills which would enable individuals to manage and transform conflicts without resort to violence. Educational infrastructure, it added, should be distributed fairly in all communities. On health, the communiqu� called for an extension of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to cover all the common diseases in Ghana "and the mutual health insurance scheme should be empowered and endowed to achieve the needed autonomy in order to operate an effective health insurance scheme". "The legal, structural and administrative bottlenecks of the NHIS should be removed to promote effective operation of the scheme," it added. The communiqu� called for vigorous educational campaign for citizens, adding that emphasis should be placed on the relationship between rights and responsibilities. "Citizenship education should be taught right from the basic school level and must be holistic. It must also be taught in the language that the pupils understand very well. At some level at the tertiary level, there should be a course on citizenship education either being a credited or a non-credited course," it added. It called for the training of women to withstand practical challenges such as criticisms and intimidation, adding that "there should be a policy that all parties should practise proportional representation at the primaries to conform to the affirmative action initiative". Formally declaring the end of the six-day school, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ghana, Prof. Samuel Agyei-Mensah, urged Ghanaians not to take for granted the peace and security the nation enjoyed and for a national development agenda devoid of partisan politics.