Ghanaian Universities and the Use of the internet and other ICT Technologies

The application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become so intricately attached to ultra-modern education globally that one cannot, in this two-way exchange, deliver or receive formal education without its application in the processes. The catch-all phrase-ICT- which describes a range of technologies for gathering, storing, retrieving, processing, analysing and transmitting information is, in fact, very indispensable in the delivery of ultra-modern education. Rightly so, governments, businesses, educational institutions and even individuals have made and continue to make huge investments in this powerful engine of growth to keep up-to-date with regards to information and communication flows.

Educational institutions have dramatically transformed in their mode of operation. Today, the use of ‘chalk and duster’ is completely extinct on some campuses. In their place are smart interactive whiteboards powered by computers and projectors of all kinds. Electronic learning mediums with the acronym ‘e-learning’ modes are increasingly becoming a commonplace with inexhaustible array of benefits wherever the network extends. E-learning blackboards enabling students to access or view their assignments, examination results, announcements, access lectures and, indeed, interact with their course directors, lecturers and fellow students are phenomenal with its application. Registration of courses and reservation of books at the library are all a click of a mouse away at any point where the network extends.

But the stark reality for Ghanaian universities is that its application has been narrowly limited to out-dated web pages which do not provide any up-to-date information about their services let alone offer most of the aforementioned e-learning facilities to prepare students for the challenges of ICT in the real world after leaving school. Lecturers and academic staff are no better than the students they teach in the application of these technologies; they are simply not abreast with these technologies.

A quick dash/navigation to the University of Cape Coast’s web page speaks volumes for itself. There is no doubt that its web site was last updated on the 6th of August 2003. Almost three years on, it still carries arrays of information which were relevant, informative and useful at that moment in time but mostly out-dated by now. Consider the fact that names like Professor Dominic Agyeman, Dr John Addai-Sundiata, Dr J.K. Ansah and Mr William Boateng, among others who, from reliable sources, are no longer with the university but still have their names on the university’s web page. So that tells you how up-to-date, accurate and relevant information on course and other schedules of the university are. The only email address: vcucc@ucc-edu.gh, providing electronic contact to the school has been perpetually dormant, and I wonder if the public has ever accessed the university by this email address or any other.

It is an incontrovertible fact that universities all over the world are seen as research-led institutions and, for that matter, a hub around which industries can modify and transform their operations based on the former’s findings. If this statement is something to go by, then I think our universities in Ghana are not playing that leading role with the innovation and dynamism that is required of them to transforming their own operations, let alone providing the necessary innovations through their graduates and other activities to effect the envisaged transformations within the industrial sector in Ghana. How can you convince me that the universities, which are supposedly the eye of the nation, are playing their leading role in shaping industry, if they cannot, as a matter convenience, provide screens on the verandas of the overcrowded lecture halls for a large number of students who cannot access the lecture halls to view lectures delivered.

Long years of under-funding coupled with under-staffing are always the most commonly mentioned reasons why Ghanaian universities cannot deliver on some of these necessary and vital facilities. If that is the case with the use of screens for the transmission of lectures on the corridors of lecture rooms, then contacting the churches for assistance (financially and practical know-how) will not be out of place. The churches have long been applying this technology to reach their members who cannot access their chock-full temples during service.

Evidence is even more compelling in the case of application of some statistical softwares. Readers who are familiar with SPSS and its applications will agree with me that it has become an integral part of most Social Science programmes, aiding in the processing of quantitative data with a very high degree of efficiency and in ‘real time’. As such, its availability and application on our university campuses, especially for the Social Sciences, cannot be underestimated. It must form a core of the quantitative analysis programme as students in the Social Sciences at the postgraduate level are bound to encounter its application in the real world after completing their programmes. But contrary to this expectation, even students at the postgraduate level pursuing research degrees in the Social Sciences do not have access to this all-important software. In a conversation with one postgraduate studying for the Mphil in Sociology in a Ghanaian university, the quantitative analysis is still a purely manual work without any such aid as SPSS.

Folks, can we continue in this way and expect to catch up? Do you recollect how we were barred not to use calculators in mathematical and other quantitative lessons? Tell me if that is for our good. Today, super computers are providing the answers in ‘real time’. Can we afford to continue in the old ways, believing they are the best way forward when ICT is ubiquitous now?

Last but not the least, imagined that it took me over SIX MONTHS, with 8 travels to Cape Coast, in the year 2002, to have my transcript processed by the University of Cape Coast for onward transmission to another university because: one, I refused to bribe the one on that schedule; two, the one on the schedule could not find any innovative ways of making its processing and acquisition easier, and then make proposals to the head of that section for its implementation after so many years of working on the same schedule.

It beats my imagination a great deal, in view of the fact that Ghanaian universities have offices in London and Accra where they maintain paid staffs but have not been able to device mechanism by which old students and the general public could make payments to these offices in regard to transcripts and other important documents without necessarily having to contact or travel to Cape Coast for these transactions. Is not possible that where payments are required, Ghanaians in the diaspora could pay to the London office and be given reference numbers to identify them after which an email could be send by the officer in-charge to main campus to place order on behalf of the individual for whatever request it may be?

The Vice-Chancellors of our universities must note that its time we produce graduates who will not be found wanting in ICT applications in the real world of work for ICT is now the order of the day in the world of work. It has enhanced the process of value creation, value exchange, value distribution, financing, sales, internal communication, and marketing, among others. Wherever the network extends, the cost of doing business can be reduced with an increased efficiency.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.