Ghanaian academics deserve better, not “insults” – Scholar

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Fo Koku - Tanyinbge 9 years ago

THEY RECYCLE THE SAME STUFF.

THEY RECYCLE THE SAME STUFF.
Asantehene 9 years ago

Do you want the lecturers to reinvent nature or recreate it before you appreciate their work. Since you are educated yourself then you are a recycled product, thanks to a lecturer or teacher.

Do you want the lecturers to reinvent nature or recreate it before you appreciate their work. Since you are educated yourself then you are a recycled product, thanks to a lecturer or teacher.
Mike 9 years ago

Look at this low IQ African baboons talking about academics, what have they done with their chew and pour academics for mother Ghana all these while?

Look at this low IQ African baboons talking about academics, what have they done with their chew and pour academics for mother Ghana all these while?
Liars! 9 years ago

You reason like an illiterate FOOL! Your useless government is managed by a lazy and corrupt cabinet! And that explains why they would rather waste the taxpayers money on DIAPERS at a time when essential services are lacking! ...
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You reason like an illiterate FOOL! Your useless government is managed by a lazy and corrupt cabinet! And that explains why they would rather waste the taxpayers money on DIAPERS at a time when essential services are lacking! A useless government that will rather waste US$ 63,000 a month on an office space!! Go to the major international journals and find out the publications of hardworking Ghanaian lecturers. STUPID FOOL!
Jajawuraja 9 years ago

Politicians are the cause of our woes, not academics! Most of the Politicians don,t think. If they think, we would not be in this mess. Take your share and give me some! Laugh it off!!

Politicians are the cause of our woes, not academics! Most of the Politicians don,t think. If they think, we would not be in this mess. Take your share and give me some! Laugh it off!!
Alan 9 years ago

THE LECTURERS ARE GREEDY AND LAZY. OBJS LECTURERS EMPTY HEADED THESE DAYS

THE LECTURERS ARE GREEDY AND LAZY. OBJS LECTURERS EMPTY HEADED THESE DAYS
Liars! 9 years ago

You can't even THINK! Just read what you have written and ask yourself whether it makes any sense, you BRAINLESS NDC stooge!

You can't even THINK! Just read what you have written and ask yourself whether it makes any sense, you BRAINLESS NDC stooge!
Obuabasa 9 years ago

By this horde of ignoble beings,'institutional perverts',if you want my honest opinion,who trade academic grades for half-hour of rendezvous sessions with young men and women in sleazy motels and guest houses!

By this horde of ignoble beings,'institutional perverts',if you want my honest opinion,who trade academic grades for half-hour of rendezvous sessions with young men and women in sleazy motels and guest houses!
Obuabasa 9 years ago

Fans and Supporters? None,except these 'foolish' and intellectually lazy University lecturers(turned paid propagandists), as well as fake, corrupt and greedy clergy,who have turned the church pulpit and Radio into political ...
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Fans and Supporters? None,except these 'foolish' and intellectually lazy University lecturers(turned paid propagandists), as well as fake, corrupt and greedy clergy,who have turned the church pulpit and Radio into political platforms to spew out utter rubbish!
Today,thanks to advancement in communication and travel,we have come to realize that many of these noise-makers',masquerading as academics,are nothing special! In fact,this nation will be better off without many of them! What special knowledge and training - formal or otherwise -have they been transferring to our youth,the mainstay of the next generation? Together with their 'soul mates,the politicians,have they not been largely responsible for causing the decadence we all see in our society?
If I had the power, I will seriously think about cosigning the the countryside,to help improve their thought -processes,that have been found wanting, in many ways.
OPPONG 9 years ago

YOU ARE JUST CHEATS. WHAT RESEARCH DO YOU CONDUSCT? THE BOOKS YOU PLAGARISED ARE SOLD AT EXOBITANT PRICES. CAN ANY LECTURER PUBLISH A RESEARCH WORK IN THE DAILIES FOR GHANAIANS TO READ? IN THE UNIVERSITIES THESE DAYS ARE TH ...
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YOU ARE JUST CHEATS. WHAT RESEARCH DO YOU CONDUSCT? THE BOOKS YOU PLAGARISED ARE SOLD AT EXOBITANT PRICES. CAN ANY LECTURER PUBLISH A RESEARCH WORK IN THE DAILIES FOR GHANAIANS TO READ? IN THE UNIVERSITIES THESE DAYS ARE THE LECTURERS NOT ASKING OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS LIKE JHS? NONSENSE.
Ombudsman 9 years ago

oppong, Research findings are not published in daily newspapers. They are published in International/local journals. Daily papers are meant to cover specific content, i.e: events happening around us that affect our day to day ...
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oppong, Research findings are not published in daily newspapers. They are published in International/local journals. Daily papers are meant to cover specific content, i.e: events happening around us that affect our day to day lives, etc.,
Your line of attack is so ignorant that I think you have given the lecturers a good cause to fight even harder for what they deserve. Most of these lecturers are able to publish very relevant findings in world class journals, are able to compete against other lecturers from other reputable universities like Havard, Cambridge, etc., and win awards and grants, etc., Meanwhile from what I hear, lecturers in Ghana are among the least paid in the world. And for your information, the lecturers do conduct research.
My nephew just graduated in one of the applied science areas, and he has told me how his supervisor on several occasions had to pay for certain things out of his own pocket. Even sending some samples out for some crucial analyses were catered for by his supervisor with funds from his own pocket. The good news is that his research work has been accepted and is going to be published in the journal called "Life".
Do yourself a favour and goodle the journal (i.e: if your intelligence even takes you that far).
You will know the caliber of journals these lecturers are publishing in.
So instead of insulting the lectures, educate yourself, and if you are lucky you may get the chance to be a lecturer one day.
But I doubt that anyway....
Kofi 9 years ago

What is wrong in using Multiple Choice Questions in the university? Go read on Blooms Taxonomy and check if MCQs cannot be used for assessment. Read on the rules in constructing mcq. Educate yourself first before writing on t ...
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What is wrong in using Multiple Choice Questions in the university? Go read on Blooms Taxonomy and check if MCQs cannot be used for assessment. Read on the rules in constructing mcq. Educate yourself first before writing on things you appear to be ignorant of.
Speedy Gonzalez 9 years ago

Just look at the university compounds and lecturers behaviour.With all there scholars the nation still lacks the basic things in life,water.Seeing little girls fetching water as i did 40 years ago is mind boggling.What resear ...
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Just look at the university compounds and lecturers behaviour.With all there scholars the nation still lacks the basic things in life,water.Seeing little girls fetching water as i did 40 years ago is mind boggling.What research have these scholars done in terms of water supply,sanitation and food hygiene?They should come out with the practical side of their research to help the general population,their too theory based,just mouth.
Liars! 9 years ago

You admit after all that the lecturers do conduct research and come out with their findings! Serious minded governments make use of research findings from their academics/researchers. Your government will rather waste resourc ...
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You admit after all that the lecturers do conduct research and come out with their findings! Serious minded governments make use of research findings from their academics/researchers. Your government will rather waste resources on diapers!
Ugly Akufo Addo 9 years ago

Hw can an oldman be stupid like that ?

Hw can an oldman be stupid like that ?
Asantehene 9 years ago

Professor, let them know.Lecturers will continue to be the citadel of human resource development. Let's learn from this quote: "I do believe that it is necessary to stress that for most countries today, human resource develop ...
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Professor, let them know.Lecturers will continue to be the citadel of human resource development. Let's learn from this quote: "I do believe that it is necessary to stress that for most countries today, human resource development and human capital formation are either extremely
important, absolutely vital, or a matter of life and death. In the case of Malaysia…we think it is a matter of life or death.”
Abdullah Bin Ahmed Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia (Opening Speech of the 2006 Meeting of the Association of Commonwealth Universities)
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Yeah! That's in Malaysia, not Ghana! When was the last time any of them even wrote a letter to the Editor on any national issue?

Do they even have Departmental journals to publish anything in? C'mmon, Ghanaian academics ar ...
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Yeah! That's in Malaysia, not Ghana! When was the last time any of them even wrote a letter to the Editor on any national issue?

Do they even have Departmental journals to publish anything in? C'mmon, Ghanaian academics are not the equals of their counterparts elsewhere in the world. They can't even match Nigerian academics in publishing!

Malaysia is not achieving that objective you quoted by book and research allowances to their lecturers.

Andy-K
Liars! 9 years ago

Stop writing what you know next to nothing about! You are just exposing your ignorance and/or laziness. You may want to pay a visit to some of those universities or go to Google to find out about those Departmental Journals y ...
read full comment

Stop writing what you know next to nothing about! You are just exposing your ignorance and/or laziness. You may want to pay a visit to some of those universities or go to Google to find out about those Departmental Journals you mentioned.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Well, your ignorant and lazy Andy-K has posted a brief article he wrote on this serious brouhaha. Can you the informed and clever man go and tear that article apart, and show to the whole world that the ideas contained therei ...
read full comment

Well, your ignorant and lazy Andy-K has posted a brief article he wrote on this serious brouhaha. Can you the informed and clever man go and tear that article apart, and show to the whole world that the ideas contained therein are vacuous and don't prevail in the civilised world?

Google for Christian Michelsen Institute (CMI) and you can contact them to find out if they had heard of me before. Ask them whether they have book and research allowances for their researchers. Or for similar bodies and universities in Norway.

Andy-K
Kofi 9 years ago

dont be silly! if you have nothing to say, just keep your mouth shut. In that manner, you may appear to be bright.

dont be silly! if you have nothing to say, just keep your mouth shut. In that manner, you may appear to be bright.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

THE BOOK AND RESEARCH ALLOWANCES BROUHAHA

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) are currently embroiled in a dispute with government over the cancella ...
read full comment

THE BOOK AND RESEARCH ALLOWANCES BROUHAHA

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) are currently embroiled in a dispute with government over the cancellation of book and research allowances to lecturers in the tertiary institutions of Ghana. Threatened strike actions have just been suspended pending the outcome of negotiations between the parties to the dispute. I urge government not to buckle to these threats and dastardly blackmail.

Some of us were horrified when we read of the institution of these book and research allowances in the tertiary institutions in the mid-1990s by the NDC Rawlings regime. I wrote against it on the Okyeame forum and received a lot of support from forumers, many of them lecturers in tertiary institutions in the West. A couple of professors from the universities in Ghana on sabbaticals in the US sent me private mails agreeing with me and disagreeing with the new order that was just announced. I was myself then, besides a graduate student and teaching assistant in the University of Bergen, a research assistant at Christian Michelsen Institute (CMI), the largest development and human rights research institute in Scandinavia. A rich country like Norway would not dream of such insane dole outs of public money to lecturers.

I would like to reiterate my objection to what is a gross aberration in the development process designed to just cushion the take home pay of lecturers rather than boost any serious book acquisition, teaching and research efforts, and therefore back the cancellation of the gross anomaly. I would also like to suggest some rational measures to replace the existing wasteful practice, a cynical joke which tax payers must not be burdened with any longer, having just recently been spared some “by force” road toll in Legon.

Those who support the present egregious practice are free to supply to us its evaluation, giving us the number of publications - peer reviewed or not - which each of the recipients have authored over the years and how well they have improved their teaching practices.

It is a fact that our tertiary institutions lack publications to support any meaningful research and teaching, as a visit to any of their main libraries, such as Balme Library in Legon, will show. But the solution is not a privatisation of measures to acquire such publications. The first step in resolving the problem is stocking their libraries, both main and departmental ones, with the latest publications: newspapers, magazines, journals, books, audio visuals, micro films, data bases, etc. Yes, stocking the libraries shall be the main focus.

In conjunction with the above, the book shops on the campuses must be regularly stocked with same publications. In view of this, the university publishing presses must be revamped to secure the rights to publish certain books locally, instead of the present practice of even publishing books for primary schools abroad! It is simply gross!

As it would not be financially and logistically feasible to buy and stock all publications, there must be a selection process to acquire relevant ones only. There are some standard, mainstream publications – books, journals, magazines and newspapers - which it’d be a matter of course to acquire. Books that form part of the curricula, which curricula must be reviewed regularly to include new publications, would be acquired routinely. New books, however, require some element of discretion and lecturers within departments may collectively deliberate upon which to acquire for their institutes, and eventually add to the reading list.

Publishers regularly send catalogues of upcoming publications to educational and research institutions and libraries. Steps must be taken to get such catalogues from both local and foreign publishers. As the practice was in CMI - and I believe still is - the catalogues are passed round from the library to the researchers upstairs to mark any of the publications they want to be acquired for the library, or their own use. If you want a personal copy to keep, one is acquired for you and you pay for it from your own pocket, benefiting from the hefty subsidy the publishers give to the library. If you do not want a copy, you use the one acquired for the library and return it after using it. I availed myself of the opportunity to acquire a couple of books for myself at knocked down prices, one of them not even related directly to my studies, Africa Ark by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, which provided me with great insight about the peoples of the Horn of Africa, their past and the development challenges we Africans face.

RESEARCH FUNDS

There is need for a three-tiered source of publicly funded funds to lecturers and researchers who want to carry out research requiring funding – the departmental, the university/polytechnic level and the national level.

Funds must be provided to each department to fund some minimum level of research in their fields of specialisation, which fund lecturers shall compete for, or just be granted some funding from for minor expenses linked to their field works, for example. That way, they can build up their research capabilities and capacities to world class levels, capable of attracting independently/privately funded researches and consultancies. We can expect those in the physical and engineering sciences to come out with innovative findings and discoveries which can be commercialised.

There must be a bigger research fund at the university/polytechnic level available to all departments and institutes. Each year, a certain number of researches must be funded on specific areas of interest that contribute to knowledge and the development of Ghana and Africa in general. Lecturers apply to such a fund in competition with each other by presenting research proposals and budget. Not even in the recognised Ivy League institutions of the West are lecturers undertaking research from one year to another necessitating funding them. After all, there are specialised research institutes with full time researchers undertaking research into vital issues for their states. What about Ghana?

The government must maintain a national fund for research into areas of concern to the government and the public. In view of this, the government shall specify the area it wants to be researched and invites researchers to present research proposals and budget to carry them out. A panel of scholars running the fund shall determine the winner/s. This suggestion is nothing novel but simply what pertains in the civilised nations. The Federal Government of the USA is thus the largest source of research funding in the US.

In spite of the fact that Ken Kuranchie came out from prison, realised that Ghanaians are not civilised and blurted it out just like that, it does not mean that we cannot begin to emulate some of the civilised ways of the people acclaimed to be civilised, if we intend to get out of the ditch into which some have run the state of Ghana since the demise of Kwame Nkrumah. Or, should I say, since the grandfathers and great grand uncles of some of us handed over the affairs of the Gold Coast to the wannabe leaders of the new nation tagged Ghana?

Besides these suggestions, the tertiary institutions must be proactive in seeking private individuals and corporate bodies to set up foundations and legacies to support research within respective departments.

Andy C. Y. Kwawukume
cyandyk@ymail.com
Yaw Manu 9 years ago

Only a handful of Ghanaian lecturers conduct any research at all. They are not only lazy but opportunist and thieves.

Let me them show you any work of originality. They have non. They only recycle their notes over and over ...
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Only a handful of Ghanaian lecturers conduct any research at all. They are not only lazy but opportunist and thieves.

Let me them show you any work of originality. They have non. They only recycle their notes over and over.

The new thing now is "fa woto be gye marks". It is happening all over - Legon and GIMPA are the worse culprits
Liars! 9 years ago

It is you and your hopeless father who are thieves! IDIOT.

It is you and your hopeless father who are thieves! IDIOT.
Yaw Manu 9 years ago

1. Dont the Lecturers fuck the young girls and give them marks?
2. Dont the Lecturers collect money from students and give them marks? The records are there at Legon and GIMPA. A lecturer was sacked after his nefarious act ...
read full comment

1. Dont the Lecturers fuck the young girls and give them marks?
2. Dont the Lecturers collect money from students and give them marks? The records are there at Legon and GIMPA. A lecturer was sacked after his nefarious activities were discovered.
3. I can tell that you are a lecturer. How many times have you used the research allowance to conduct any research work?

Be honest with yourself. Instead of fighting for research allowance, ask for increase in your pay but you are scared to ask for increase in pay because you know that you dont deserve it.
Liars! 9 years ago

"A lecturer was sacked after his nefarious activities were discovered". Does that make all Ghanaian lecturers bad? He was sacked, wasn't he? It means academia does not condone wrongdoing. If he were a MINISTER, the President ...
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"A lecturer was sacked after his nefarious activities were discovered". Does that make all Ghanaian lecturers bad? He was sacked, wasn't he? It means academia does not condone wrongdoing. If he were a MINISTER, the President would have moved him from one Ministry to another! Therein lies the 'raison d'etre'. Stop demonising Ghanaian lecturers.
Kofi 9 years ago

Well spoken. Thank you.

Well spoken. Thank you.
Gbagbladza 9 years ago

The pathetic thing is that the fuck the girls and feel proud of it. I have friends over there who are victims and also who are perpetrators They have confirmed it. The best we can do is to recognize it as "normal" and not to ...
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The pathetic thing is that the fuck the girls and feel proud of it. I have friends over there who are victims and also who are perpetrators They have confirmed it. The best we can do is to recognize it as "normal" and not to deny it . it is there "filifili"
Kofi kwame 9 years ago

Ghanian Academics deserves no insult Eighter
They deserved to be sent to Prison

Ghanian Academics deserves no insult Eighter
They deserved to be sent to Prison
Liars! 9 years ago

Just read what you have written! Such a BRAINLESS IDIOT is also insulting lecturers? What a JOKE!

Just read what you have written! Such a BRAINLESS IDIOT is also insulting lecturers? What a JOKE!
Yaw Manu 9 years ago

The truth is often difficult to proclaim but there are times that it has to be said as it is.

1. Dont the Lecturers fuck the young girls and give them marks?

2. Dont the Lecturers collect money from students and give th ...
read full comment

The truth is often difficult to proclaim but there are times that it has to be said as it is.

1. Dont the Lecturers fuck the young girls and give them marks?

2. Dont the Lecturers collect money from students and give them marks? The records are there at Legon and GIMPA. A lecturer was sacked after his nefarious activities were discovered.

3. I can tell that you are a lecturer. How many times have you used the research allowance to conduct any research work?

Be honest with yourself. Instead of fighting for research allowance, ask for increase in your pay but you are scared to ask for increase in pay because you know that you dont deserve it.
Liars! 9 years ago

You certainly need some psychiatric treatment, Yaw Manu! I don't need to be a lecturer to come out with those stuff. If you need to know about the research and publications of Ghanaian lecturers, do a little research yourself ...
read full comment

You certainly need some psychiatric treatment, Yaw Manu! I don't need to be a lecturer to come out with those stuff. If you need to know about the research and publications of Ghanaian lecturers, do a little research yourself by paying a visit to those universities or go to Google. Stop speculating about things you have no ideas about.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

What a load of fluff! Is Ashesi Univ. also giving lecturers blanket book and research allowances? Such a thing is not done in any civilised country.

Just imagine what $400-600 per lecturer, $7m a year in total, could have ...
read full comment

What a load of fluff! Is Ashesi Univ. also giving lecturers blanket book and research allowances? Such a thing is not done in any civilised country.

Just imagine what $400-600 per lecturer, $7m a year in total, could have done to the libraries and labs in the universities since 1995 when this grotesque policy was started.

I can blow wide holes in everything this Dr Amoah has said but won't waste my time on that now, as I am actually writing a new article to attack these intellectually bankrupt academics whose failure in thinking underpins our continual backwardness. Meanwhile, I am re-posting here my earlier article on the subject.

Andy-K
Liars! 9 years ago

Just come out with your so-called new article! We are waiting for you. Before then, let me ask you this question. How much do lecturers in those civilised countries take in a month? You appear to be worried about the $400-$60 ...
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Just come out with your so-called new article! We are waiting for you. Before then, let me ask you this question. How much do lecturers in those civilised countries take in a month? You appear to be worried about the $400-$600 paid to each lecturer a year! For your information, those civilised countries pay about the same amount to each lecturer for any publication they come out with! We have a case in point where a Ghanaian lecturer published about eight papers with his counterparts in those civilised countries as co-authors; each of his counterparts in those civilised countries were paid between $3,000-$4000 in that year. He had nothing, although the chunk of the work was done by him and he was the corresponding author in all the eight papers! There is nothing wrong with Ghanaian academics. They teach; they conduct research and publish their findings in the same journals as those academics from the rest of the world do. What is missing is the managers of the system and people who reason like you. Just come out with your article.
Yaw Manu 9 years ago

My dear friend, you may have a point but please let the truth be told.

Lecturers elsewhere really work. The are available to supervise their students. They do proper academic work.

They liaise with industry to serve h ...
read full comment

My dear friend, you may have a point but please let the truth be told.

Lecturers elsewhere really work. The are available to supervise their students. They do proper academic work.

They liaise with industry to serve humanity.

All our lecturers do is to copy and past. I was once an MBA students at the Business School in legon and a lecturer shamelessly gives away notes to be dictated in class for MBA students. Do you call this real academic work? Should such a person be entitled to Research and Book Allowance? Certainly no.

Perhaps you are a lecturer with a difference in which case the new system will be more beneficial to you because you can present your proposal and draw on the Research Fund.

Good luck to you
Liars! 9 years ago

One day I will invite you to my Lab and show you what Ghanaians can do here in Ghana! I published over ten papers last year alone. That should tell you that I don't depend on the research allowance alone to do my research. I ...
read full comment

One day I will invite you to my Lab and show you what Ghanaians can do here in Ghana! I published over ten papers last year alone. That should tell you that I don't depend on the research allowance alone to do my research. I do not think Ghanaian lecturers hate the idea of a Research Fund. You don't take away what is due them now, when the proposed idea has not come on board. Cheers!
Yaw Manu 9 years ago

The truth is that I am actually lecturer as well and have been on committee investigating colleagues and it hurts to see that some lecturers give the profession a bad name. I am serious about this. It really hurts. The unfo ...
read full comment

The truth is that I am actually lecturer as well and have been on committee investigating colleagues and it hurts to see that some lecturers give the profession a bad name. I am serious about this. It really hurts. The unfortunate thing is that some of them are the so called "senior lecturers"
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

I wrote this earlier. If you are educated and not intellectually bankrupt, pick the logic apart if you can.

THE BOOK AND RESEARCH ALLOWANCES BROUHAHA

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechn ...
read full comment

I wrote this earlier. If you are educated and not intellectually bankrupt, pick the logic apart if you can.

THE BOOK AND RESEARCH ALLOWANCES BROUHAHA

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) are currently embroiled in a dispute with government over the cancellation of book and research allowances to lecturers in the tertiary institutions of Ghana. Threatened strike actions have just been suspended pending the outcome of negotiations between the parties to the dispute. I urge government not to buckle to these threats and dastardly blackmail.

Some of us were horrified when we read of the institution of these book and research allowances in the tertiary institutions in the mid-1990s by the NDC Rawlings regime. I wrote against it on the Okyeame forum and received a lot of support from forumers, many of them lecturers in tertiary institutions in the West. A couple of professors from the universities in Ghana on sabbaticals in the US sent me private mails agreeing with me and disagreeing with the new order that was just announced. I was myself then, besides a graduate student and teaching assistant in the University of Bergen, a research assistant at Christian Michelsen Institute (CMI), the largest development and human rights research institute in Scandinavia. A rich country like Norway would not dream of such insane dole outs of public money to lecturers.

I would like to reiterate my objection to what is a gross aberration in the development process designed to just cushion the take home pay of lecturers rather than boost any serious book acquisition, teaching and research efforts, and therefore back the cancellation of the gross anomaly. I would also like to suggest some rational measures to replace the existing wasteful practice, a cynical joke which tax payers must not be burdened with any longer, having just recently been spared some “by force” road toll in Legon.

Those who support the present egregious practice are free to supply to us its evaluation, giving us the number of publications - peer reviewed or not - which each of the recipients have authored over the years and how well they have improved their teaching practices.

It is a fact that our tertiary institutions lack publications to support any meaningful research and teaching, as a visit to any of their main libraries, such as Balme Library in Legon, will show. But the solution is not a privatisation of measures to acquire such publications. The first step in resolving the problem is stocking their libraries, both main and departmental ones, with the latest publications: newspapers, magazines, journals, books, audio visuals, micro films, data bases, etc. Yes, stocking the libraries shall be the main focus.

In conjunction with the above, the book shops on the campuses must be regularly stocked with same publications. In view of this, the university publishing presses must be revamped to secure the rights to publish certain books locally, instead of the present practice of even publishing books for primary schools abroad! It is simply gross!

As it would not be financially and logistically feasible to buy and stock all publications, there must be a selection process to acquire relevant ones only. There are some standard, mainstream publications – books, journals, magazines and newspapers - which it’d be a matter of course to acquire. Books that form part of the curricula, which curricula must be reviewed regularly to include new publications, would be acquired routinely. New books, however, require some element of discretion and lecturers within departments may collectively deliberate upon which to acquire for their institutes, and eventually add to the reading list.

Publishers regularly send catalogues of upcoming publications to educational and research institutions and libraries. Steps must be taken to get such catalogues from both local and foreign publishers. As the practice was in CMI - and I believe still is - the catalogues are passed round from the library to the researchers upstairs to mark any of the publications they want to be acquired for the library, or their own use. If you want a personal copy to keep, one is acquired for you and you pay for it from your own pocket, benefiting from the hefty subsidy the publishers give to the library. If you do not want a copy, you use the one acquired for the library and return it after using it. I availed myself of the opportunity to acquire a couple of books for myself at knocked down prices, one of them not even related directly to my studies, Africa Ark by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher, which provided me with great insight about the peoples of the Horn of Africa, their past and the development challenges we Africans face.

RESEARCH FUNDS

There is need for a three-tiered source of publicly funded funds to lecturers and researchers who want to carry out research requiring funding – the departmental, the university/polytechnic level and the national level.

Funds must be provided to each department to fund some minimum level of research in their fields of specialisation, which fund lecturers shall compete for, or just be granted some funding from for minor expenses linked to their field works, for example. That way, they can build up their research capabilities and capacities to world class levels, capable of attracting independently/privately funded researches and consultancies. We can expect those in the physical and engineering sciences to come out with innovative findings and discoveries which can be commercialised.

There must be a bigger research fund at the university/polytechnic level available to all departments and institutes. Each year, a certain number of researches must be funded on specific areas of interest that contribute to knowledge and the development of Ghana and Africa in general. Lecturers apply to such a fund in competition with each other by presenting research proposals and budget. Not even in the recognised Ivy League institutions of the West are lecturers undertaking research from one year to another necessitating funding them. After all, there are specialised research institutes with full time researchers undertaking research into vital issues for their states. What about Ghana?

The government must maintain a national fund for research into areas of concern to the government and the public. In view of this, the government shall specify the area it wants to be researched and invites researchers to present research proposals and budget to carry them out. A panel of scholars running the fund shall determine the winner/s. This suggestion is nothing novel but simply what pertains in the civilised nations. The Federal Government of the USA is thus the largest source of research funding in the US.

In spite of the fact that Ken Kuranchie came out from prison, realised that Ghanaians are not civilised and blurted it out just like that, it does not mean that we cannot begin to emulate some of the civilised ways of the people acclaimed to be civilised, if we intend to get out of the ditch into which some have run the state of Ghana since the demise of Kwame Nkrumah. Or, should I say, since the grandfathers and great grand uncles of some of us handed over the affairs of the Gold Coast to the wannabe leaders of the new nation tagged Ghana?

Besides these suggestions, the tertiary institutions must be proactive in seeking private individuals and corporate bodies to set up foundations and legacies to support research within respective departments.

Andy C. Y. Kwawukume
cyandyk@ymail.com
Kofi 9 years ago

There are 9 public universities in the country. You are using one poor man as an example that all lecturers are not good. I am sure in that MBA programme you also had good lecturers as well. Stop this 'give a dog a bad name ...
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There are 9 public universities in the country. You are using one poor man as an example that all lecturers are not good. I am sure in that MBA programme you also had good lecturers as well. Stop this 'give a dog a bad name and hang it' attitude. Read the VC report of the various public universities and check if there are no new publications in them.
Kofi 9 years ago

A teacher educates students and the students now inform the teacher that they were not taught anything. Everyone thinks he/she can teach. The bane of teachers.

A teacher educates students and the students now inform the teacher that they were not taught anything. Everyone thinks he/she can teach. The bane of teachers.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

Some of also had the opportunity to teach from the secondary to the university levels and even had a stint in first class research institutes in the West, so we are used to students like the ones you mentioned.

While on a ...
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Some of also had the opportunity to teach from the secondary to the university levels and even had a stint in first class research institutes in the West, so we are used to students like the ones you mentioned.

While on a remedial teaching course in Nigeria in the early 1980s, I learned and read that a very good teacher can only teach his/her students 45% of what they need to know to become really educated! Import? You must motivate the students to read beyond the curricula. Some of us did! Most Ghanaian academics don't! They are clueless about subjects outside their areas of specialisation, hence the beginning of their intellectual bankruptcy despite their "plenty, plenty education". After all, an intellectual is a highly educated person commenting and putting ideas together on a subject or areas of learning other than his/her own. If you comment on your own area of specialisation, you are doing so as an "expert" or "specialist", not as an intellectual.

It is common you get the whole class in sec. schls in Ghana responding in unison to the query if there was something they didn't understand: "the whole thing!".

My next article is on the failure of the Ghanaian academics as intellectuals, hence this grotesque insistence on being paid book and research allowances.

Andy-K
Kofi 9 years ago

Don't mix half-truths, lies, misconceptions in a pot and pour it out as an intellectual dish! ...They are clueless about subjects outside their areas of specialisation, hence the beginning of their intellectual bankruptcy des ...
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Don't mix half-truths, lies, misconceptions in a pot and pour it out as an intellectual dish! ...They are clueless about subjects outside their areas of specialisation, hence the beginning of their intellectual bankruptcy despite their "plenty, plenty education" Wow. With one big sweep, all uni teachers are swept in a dustbin? I fault your logic of reasoning.
SST 9 years ago

Academics who are more interested in taking political stand on issues affecting Ghana but can't solve problems confronting the country can at best be described as useless. Matter of fact, Africa intellectuals are only good ...
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Academics who are more interested in taking political stand on issues affecting Ghana but can't solve problems confronting the country can at best be described as useless. Matter of fact, Africa intellectuals are only good at speaking big English.
Abeeku Mensah 9 years ago

Academics deserve better from whom in Ghana? Is it the government that subsidized their education or the taxpayers who gave up part of their meager earnings even when they could barely sustain decent living? Instead of anothe ...
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Academics deserve better from whom in Ghana? Is it the government that subsidized their education or the taxpayers who gave up part of their meager earnings even when they could barely sustain decent living? Instead of another so-called scholar preaching to Ghanaians what our educated elite class should ask of itself is why they have had a hand in every government Ghana has had since 1966 and yet Ghana is worse of today for the majority of its citizens than comparative nations of the non-aligned nations of the world for which Ghana was one? Is it because the leadership of those countries have selfless, moral and principled educated elite class, they have more nation loving educated class or they have greater intellectual capacity and wisdom than the club of intellectuals in Ghana?
We will acquiesce to the so-called educated class when they stop letting tribal and political party affiliation drive their judgment and give us what is good about Ghana for all. Would intelligent nation loving class live in a nation where they live in masions built from stolen money and unjustified government salaries even as the rest of society are dying from inadequate services if they were the least moral and has sense of fairness and equity? Is it not only people of shameless character traits that could steal from government coffers even as they spend additional money on bogus committees to try and untangle their own corrupt activities knowing those exercises will come to no fruition? Give us a break and let all that so-called classroom acquired knowledge do your talking for you with a little moral flair or flavor.
Obournana 9 years ago

Where are Akadu Mensema and Okoampah? They show their credentials as if they are the only scholars in Ghana. Will they come to either to support or write against this debate to show their worth? I wonder if this so-called sch ...
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Where are Akadu Mensema and Okoampah? They show their credentials as if they are the only scholars in Ghana. Will they come to either to support or write against this debate to show their worth? I wonder if this so-called scholar has ever taught in the US? Where on earth do a lecturer receive monthly book and research allowance when they have not done anything? People write textbooks to earn their money. Lecturers write proposals to seek for grants towards a research from institutions including the government and not free money every month. Is this the reason they are stuck in Ghana? It is a shame for some academia to support such an argument. Ghana is indeed doomed if we all these people as scholars. Their thinking show that they are cognitively immature unless for political expediencies. Shame.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago

I can't speak for Ahoofe but I can testify that Akadu made an appearance and supported my position when my piece The Book and Research Allowances Brouhaha was published.

This is what he wrote:

"I agree with you regardin ...
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I can't speak for Ahoofe but I can testify that Akadu made an appearance and supported my position when my piece The Book and Research Allowances Brouhaha was published.

This is what he wrote:

"I agree with you regarding competitive funding tied into actual research and production of knowledge that will be the basis of promotion in the Ghananain (sic)academy. There are too many calling themselves professors who have no body of knowledge to show for it."

Andy-K
K APPIAH 9 years ago

well said doc,dont mind these ndc empty and ignorant fools,they just hate everybody in accademia,just because majority of their followers are illiterates and under achievers.asiedu nketia can attest to this fact

well said doc,dont mind these ndc empty and ignorant fools,they just hate everybody in accademia,just because majority of their followers are illiterates and under achievers.asiedu nketia can attest to this fact
Say the Truth 9 years ago

A NATION THAT WORSHIPS AND CALLS THOSE WHO ROB THEM OF THEIR RESOURCES, STAVE THEM, HIDE FROM THEM THE STOLEN RRSOURCES AND AT A PERIOD OF CHOOSING/ELECTING THEM AGAIN COMES BACK WITH THE LOOTED RESOURCES...GIVES A LITTLE TO ...
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A NATION THAT WORSHIPS AND CALLS THOSE WHO ROB THEM OF THEIR RESOURCES, STAVE THEM, HIDE FROM THEM THE STOLEN RRSOURCES AND AT A PERIOD OF CHOOSING/ELECTING THEM AGAIN COMES BACK WITH THE LOOTED RESOURCES...GIVES A LITTLE TO THE STARVING CITIZENS...WHO THEN I THEIR "STUPIDITY/CORRUPTIBLE MINDS" CONSIDERS THE "LOOTERS" NOW COMING BACK TO GIVE THEM SOME OF THEIR STOLEN RESOURCES AS THEIR HEROES & A TIME TO GET THEIR SHARE OF THE LOOTS...EVEN IF THEY WISEN UP TO KNOW IT IS SOME OF THEIR STOLEN RESOURCES BEEN GIVEN BACK TO THEY IN THEIR BLINDED/CORRUPTIBLE MINDS FEELS IT IS NOW TIME FOR THEM TO GET SOME OF THE STOLEN MONEY FORM THE "LOOTERS" & ALSO BLINDED WITH HATRED/TRIBALISM, SECTIONALISM, DECIDE TO VOTE AGAIN AND AGAIN THE "LOOTERS/DESTROYERS OF THEIR SYSTEM AND ECONOMY BACK TO POWER - AND DECIDED TO IGNORE THE ALTERNATIVE CHOICE - THOSE WHO HAD PROMISED TO SHARE THE NATIONS RESOURCES WITH EVERYBODY IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LIKE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, FREE EDUCATION, EVENLY BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE NATION IN THE BEST POSSIBLE AND SENSIBLE WAY!!!

A REJECTION OF THAT SENDS THAT NATION INTO NOTHING BUT ITS DOOM AND DISASTER!!!!!

IT IS A PITY GHANA IS IN SUCH A SORROWFUL & UNPARDONABLE STATE!!!!
mohammed 9 years ago

What a garbage argument! what about high school scholars who discover innovations? The change is better for all not a particular class.

What a garbage argument! what about high school scholars who discover innovations? The change is better for all not a particular class.
Gbiel Dagadoo 9 years ago

It will be a good thing if we form both academic and professional associations for those with master's and PhD. We will constantly remind of plagiarisms in publications-give credit to those who deserve it. Added, publishing ...
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It will be a good thing if we form both academic and professional associations for those with master's and PhD. We will constantly remind of plagiarisms in publications-give credit to those who deserve it. Added, publishing materials without good stats or old stats would not help the public. There are many good scholars still out there.
Kofi 9 years ago

Done already - Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences

Done already - Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
truth 9 years ago

You need them on a daily bases. Some contributors need to GROW UP. Is like technology expose their ignorance.

You need them on a daily bases. Some contributors need to GROW UP. Is like technology expose their ignorance.
USMAN 9 years ago

....Eg Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman. You just look at the chaos in the Ministry of Education(MoE)! You see, we have been deceived to think that the more academicians we produce the more our likelihood of development. This is ...
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....Eg Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman. You just look at the chaos in the Ministry of Education(MoE)! You see, we have been deceived to think that the more academicians we produce the more our likelihood of development. This is not so. Look, a country like Nigeria has more academicians than Ghana(about 20x more) but look at the chaos there. What civilized countries do is to have institutions for producing practitioners and others for academicians and so when their academicians think, they have practitioners to implement their findings into practical reality and when the latter have problems they fall back to the thinkers. This is the collaboration that has fine tuned the development of serious countries like China, Germany, France, etc. Unfortunately for us, the academicians have hijacked everything in Ghana to the extent that if you are not an academician you cannot become the rector of a polytechnic in Ghana. Does this make sense? This is what is exposing their incompetence hence exposing them to public ridicule.
Kofi 9 years ago

Naana is a professor of English. She is not a manger or a politician. You take a fish out of water and expect it to live? Please get real.

Naana is a professor of English. She is not a manger or a politician. You take a fish out of water and expect it to live? Please get real.
k. Agyei 9 years ago

USELESS thinking class who teaches dead theories. These guys cannor be scholars in any other continent because they do not understand problem solving. This dummy called has even insulted Mahama openly..... Kwaseabinti Amoah ...
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USELESS thinking class who teaches dead theories. These guys cannor be scholars in any other continent because they do not understand problem solving. This dummy called has even insulted Mahama openly..... Kwaseabinti Amoah shut the fuck up. You so called Ghanaian scholars are so stupid. You are the reason the economy is falling. Lloyd Amoah, scholar my foot.
paapa 9 years ago

Have you forgotten that all ghanain politicians are all illitrates inclding thier so call chiefs just for the fact that they don't know the importance of EDUCATION period. No wonder they are all corrup just ignore them .

Have you forgotten that all ghanain politicians are all illitrates inclding thier so call chiefs just for the fact that they don't know the importance of EDUCATION period. No wonder they are all corrup just ignore them .
kwam 9 years ago

scholar's since time immemorial enjoy this allowance, but the question one will ask is, what is the benefit to Ghana? with this current economic challenges do our scholars deserve it? if all the research findings can't solve ...
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scholar's since time immemorial enjoy this allowance, but the question one will ask is, what is the benefit to Ghana? with this current economic challenges do our scholars deserve it? if all the research findings can't solve our problems what is the justification for it?
Gandalf 9 years ago

IF THAT IS YOUR THINKING THEN PLACES LIKE THE JUDICIAL SERVICE SHOULD STOP TAKING THEIR CLOTHING ALLOWANCE SINCE THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IS ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL WOES OF THIS NATION. IN FACT MOST OF OUR CHALLENGES CAN BE T ...
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IF THAT IS YOUR THINKING THEN PLACES LIKE THE JUDICIAL SERVICE SHOULD STOP TAKING THEIR CLOTHING ALLOWANCE SINCE THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM IS ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL WOES OF THIS NATION. IN FACT MOST OF OUR CHALLENGES CAN BE TRACED TO A WEAK JUDICIAL SYSTEM FILLED WITH BEAUROCRACIES, UNNCECESARY ADJOURNMENTS, UNENDING CASES, DEAD FORMALISM ETC ETC. STOP THEIR CLOTHING ALLOWANCES NOW AND LET'S SEE HOW THINGS GO. THE WAY FORWARD FOR GHANA IS NOT LOOKING AROUND FOR WHO IS WEAK AND CUTTING THEIR MEAGER ALLOWANCES BECAUSE THEY CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY RESIST. WHILE LEAVING THOSE WHO TAKE MASSIVE MONIES FOR NOTHING.
ADONGO 9 years ago

WHAT A FOOLISH DECISION .THEY SHOULD STRIKE UNTIL THEY GET THE PALTRY ALLOWANCE BACK.GHANA IS INDEED A JOKE!

WHAT A FOOLISH DECISION .THEY SHOULD STRIKE UNTIL THEY GET THE PALTRY ALLOWANCE BACK.GHANA IS INDEED A JOKE!
Gandalf 9 years ago

IF GOVT SPENDS 7 MILLION ON THESE ALLOWANCES FOR THOUSANDS OF ACADEMICS, HOW MUCH DOES GOVT SPEND EACH YEAR ON ALLOWANCES FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS, RENT ALLOWANCE OF 50 000 GHC/USD?? WHICH CAN BE USED TO BUILD FLATS FOR THEM, END ...
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IF GOVT SPENDS 7 MILLION ON THESE ALLOWANCES FOR THOUSANDS OF ACADEMICS, HOW MUCH DOES GOVT SPEND EACH YEAR ON ALLOWANCES FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS, RENT ALLOWANCE OF 50 000 GHC/USD?? WHICH CAN BE USED TO BUILD FLATS FOR THEM, END OF TERM EMOLUMENTS THAT ARE SO HUGE, SITTING ALLOWANCES ETC ETC. IF TERKPER IS LOOKIING TO CUT GOVT SPENDING HE SHOULD START FROM PARLIAMENT AND MANY OTHER HIDDEN WASTE WE ARE KEEPING AS SACRED COWS.
True 9 years ago

All theses allowances must be cu, including those for Parliamentarians.

All theses allowances must be cu, including those for Parliamentarians.
KOKI 9 years ago

Academics are vital pivots in any nation that wants to develop; everyone has a speciality that if utilised fully contributes significantly to nation building. Academics are in their own regime of cracking the nuts of puzzling ...
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Academics are vital pivots in any nation that wants to develop; everyone has a speciality that if utilised fully contributes significantly to nation building. Academics are in their own regime of cracking the nuts of puzzling questions whose rightful answers drive economies; we can't belittle them! On the contrary me must appreciate them! Who makes out the graduates of varying designations in society? Who turns out the skilled manpower required to move nations forward? In most nations and in fact in the developed world the very gifted, the talented are jealously "quarantined" under different departments by their governments to dare venture into unknown territories of challenges facing mankind in the fields of agriculture, health and medicine, technological innovation and space exploration dynamics among others.

To see our precious gems bark at government over $600 allowance per year is unfortunate and also an indictment of the utter mismanagement of the nation's economy, a clear symptom of an ailing economy!
True 9 years ago

The money has to be justified. Government cannot continue to hand out allowances without proper justification. Let us get out of this allowance business.

The money has to be justified. Government cannot continue to hand out allowances without proper justification. Let us get out of this allowance business.
KOKI 9 years ago

For sure money spent by government must always be justified. But if we sincerely call for such justification then I'm afraid government would have a tough task to justify a myriad of questionable spending of public funds. Bes ...
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For sure money spent by government must always be justified. But if we sincerely call for such justification then I'm afraid government would have a tough task to justify a myriad of questionable spending of public funds. Besides I wonder if we have ample evidence to suggest improper justification of the allowances paid to the lecturers. If we do have ample evidence I would join the chorus "justify the payment". Until then they deserve their allowances as do others.
Kofi Mensah 9 years ago

I wouldn't sya they are lazy etc. What I am surprised about is that they have not appreciated the logic of 'single spine'. Single spine means no allowances and that is as simple as that. So no book and research allowance.

I wouldn't sya they are lazy etc. What I am surprised about is that they have not appreciated the logic of 'single spine'. Single spine means no allowances and that is as simple as that. So no book and research allowance.
matzcrorkz 9 years ago

G0sNjh I really like and appreciate your blog.Thanks Again. Fantastic.

G0sNjh I really like and appreciate your blog.Thanks Again. Fantastic.
crorkz 9 years ago

A1Pv5O I loved your article post. Cool.

A1Pv5O I loved your article post. Cool.

Ghanaian academics deserve better, not “insults” – Scholar

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