WHERE DID WE GO WRONG..?

A closer look at the state of the university student in Ghana may not be too pleasant. The University, which is supposed to be a place for grooming young talents for the job market, and nation building have somewhat failed the nation to some extent. This is because the drive behind tertiary education in Ghana is not about imbuing innovation, creativity and critical thinking into beneficiaries but our continuous charting of an ideals system of learning that is completely at variance with pragmatism that our nation and its people needs badly now! Coupled with poor infrastructure and low level manpower.

Tertiary education according to the Association of Commonwealth Universities (2006) enhances sustainable development, economic competitiveness, and good governance in nations and also brings global peace. Though the Ghanaian universities are trying everything possible to train graduates who will match up to the challenges of this modern world of ours the Ghanaian student is confronted with several challenges and unavailing situations that has not been resolve over the past decades. Different governments on countless occasions pledged their support and commitment to help solve the tithing challenges hampering the holistic development of this important sector of our education, since tertiary education caps the pyramid of higher learning! These commitments always espoused by our political leaders are not always fulfilled, hence the current challenges. The problems are enormous ranging from sanitation, sky rocketing fees for programmes of pursuit. Provision of basic amenities are lost from the schools’ domain, some resort to issues of non-relevance to university education such as dress code while governments look on ill equipped without adequate measures to standardize university education. Overcrowding on campuses, higher student numbers to staff ratios and lack of research materials and other logistics on the part of both staff and student’s development in our public and private universities.

The issue of sanitation can not be over emphasized, the non existence of potable water makes the situation worse, yet these schools continue to charge fixed user fees. The question is most students do not get water running through the pipe lines they have always semester after semester paid for. Administrations are not in any way accountable to students and that bothers my mind. Why should students continue to pay for something they never get to enjoy? These I consider extortion and unjustifiable suppression of the students’ interest. Both public and private universities have fallen victim of this practice.

Huge piles of rubbish are visibly seen on our campuses without being collected at all or collected at a wrong time. No wonder most of these schools only use their clinics for malaria and typhoid treatments only, these are all diseases related to poor sanitation. What training are we giving our future generation? What shall we call the university then? A SUFFERVASITY? Private universities are springing up daily without accreditation and government look on without any punitive action. Our brothers are used as experiments not forgetting the heavy sums they pay for the courses they offer.

It is important to also say that some programmes not to mention any, have really lost touch with the national goal and agenda yet these traditional universities continue to offer them to students with out modifying these courses. Graduates have frequently had to spend extra money on training after 4years of university education.

To reiterate this for example, the former CEO of UNILEVER Ghana, complained about the expenses his organization make in retraining locally trained university graduates before they are able to cope as against the foreign trained. Other managers and CEO’s have made various statements about Ghanaian graduates employed in their organizations. I must hasten to add that, the contradiction here is that, various industries and institutions both local and international constantly keep on employing Ghanaian trained professionals. What kind of training goes into university education here in Ghana? Do those programmes offered have bearing on our national development goals? I believe the question is not the non-availability of jobs but the non existence of the requisite skills which is hitherto unavailable in some of our universities. To substantiate this the chair person of a panel from National Accreditation Board on a visit to Regent University College of Science and Technology in January 2007 declared that “an observation has been made that, these days some of the private universities have resorted to the use of first degree holders in teaching a full course in some of the computer science courses which they run”.

We must as a nation be able to determine what kind of human resource we need as a nation? Is it in the area of Agriculture or Information Technology? How many professionals do we need in the various aspects of medicine, accounting, commerce, engineering etc and how are we going to get them?

Student -Staff ratios in the public universities are astronomically high to the extent that sometimes a student may never have access to interaction with a lecturer one-on-one throughout his/her 4(four) year study. The private universities which came to reduce this burden on their public counterparts are also gradually moving towards the same problem that has engulfed the public ones. For instance, our universities and country at large is virtually overwhelmed with filth. The nation spends so much in trying to manage the situation what help can be made available through the introduction of courses in such related fields of national interest to help curb the issue. Right here in the city where all the intellectuals are perceived to be living, is no exception and even worse of. What kind of nation are we building? One that virtually depend on donor support for every thing including sanitation? No doubt malaria continues to be the most prevalent disease in our schools and country at large! ACCRA METROPOLITAN ASSEMBLY (AMA) is bedeviled with a barrage of challenges, but for many years not one institution is training people along that line. In conclusion, therefore, I wish to suggest to all policy makers in our country to consider the following:

1) Ministry of Education, national accreditation board, vice chancellors Ghana, Ghana education service and all other stakeholders in tertiary education should convene a platform to develop strict standards for tertiary education.

2) Courses should be reviewed to reflect national need and capacity building in order to achieve the millennium development goals.

3) Student- Lecturer ratio to should be dramatically improved upon. Even if it means reschedule some lecture hours to the evenings.

4) Industrial experience should be part of the assessment of students, thus students should undergo some industrial attachment in order to acquaint themselves with the requisite knowledge and experience for the job market while in school and not out of school.

5) This notwithstanding, before, these benefits of tertiary education could be enjoyed according to the World Bank (2000), it must: be available, responsive and flexible, so as to meet the needs and aspirations of students, employers and governments.

Probably this could be the reason why various governments and international organizations as well as private institutions strive to formulate policies, which are aimed towards improving the quality of tertiary education provided in their countries.

I believe when we consciously apply ourselves to these recommendations coupled with many others, we would be on our way to achieving our vision 2015 or 2020!

BY: WONDER MADILO

Student Activist GIMPA ACCRA

wondermadilo@yahoo.com 0244764612