'Practise what you teach' – Onyinah to universities

The immediate past Chancellor of Pentecost University, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah (Rtd), has urged university administrators in Africa to integrate the things their universities teach in their own operations.

Apostle Prof. Onyinah made the call when he delivered the keynote address at the Second Session of the 2020 Management and Staff Prayer and Fasting Retreat of the University. He spoke on the theme, “Building a Christian University to Reflect God’s Glory.”

According to Apostle Prof Onyinah, the educational system in Africa has taught us to celebrate theory with little room for practice. This, he said, is also a troubling reality in the administration of most universities.

“Very often, when we talk about integrating theory into practice, people easily cite engineers and other professions as teaching theories, but our universities where we teach business and customer service are also victims,” Apostle Prof. Onyinah said.

He added that in most cases, universities only pay attention to teaching but unable to provide quality service to their students as they should. “For example, universities allow administrative weakness to fester, thereby affecting simple deliverables such as a request for transcripts,” Apostle Prof Onyinah added.

He attributed these poor services to weak administrative structures, organisational conflicts, poor staff motivation, among others, saying, “As institutions that teach people how to handle such bottlenecks, universities should be most efficient in dealing with them.”

He, therefore, urged African universities to invest heavily in all avenues such as technology, staff welfare and methodologies that will help them practice what they teach.

The Management and Staff Retreat is part of the corporate culture of Pentecost University. It is organised every year to pray, strategise and usher in the new academic year.

This year’s edition began on Tuesday, 22nd and ended on Wednesday, 23rd September 2020. It was held on the theme, “Reflecting God’s Glory in Our Work-Life.”