Nkrumah envisaged a united Africa as a single
Market.ECOWAS is a good start,but the respective countries need to remove all barriers
to allow free flow of people and goods to the whole of ECOWAS.This should encourage the gr ... read full comment
Nkrumah envisaged a united Africa as a single
Market.ECOWAS is a good start,but the respective countries need to remove all barriers
to allow free flow of people and goods to the whole of ECOWAS.This should encourage the growth of heavy industries and more,which in turn will produce jobs.
SENDERO 10 years ago
Africa was a single market for centuries before Nkrumah's great great great great grandmother was born
Africa was a single market for centuries before Nkrumah's great great great great grandmother was born
Punchba 10 years ago
In the first placed, this new educational established JJ Rawlings has done Ghanaian no good. During the old days, when only few student are able to pass O'level and the move on to Sixth form. Out of these students, only about ... read full comment
In the first placed, this new educational established JJ Rawlings has done Ghanaian no good. During the old days, when only few student are able to pass O'level and the move on to Sixth form. Out of these students, only about 30% were able to go to University and finished. During those days umenployment was not as huge as it today.
In nutshell, these new educational system is not good for Ghana. What is the sense in producing more university graduates if there are no jobs for them to do. Waist of their time and resources. Our leads have rethink about our educational system.
Kwami - US 10 years ago
Unemployment is even becoming worst in the USA, do not blame it on Rawlings alone. Are you aware of the number of students that come out or graduate from university each semester; and each academic year (Fall, Spring, Summer? ... read full comment
Unemployment is even becoming worst in the USA, do not blame it on Rawlings alone. Are you aware of the number of students that come out or graduate from university each semester; and each academic year (Fall, Spring, Summer?)
Punchba 10 years ago
I am total aware, that is why most people finish school with a huge student loan and can never finish paying before they died. Do not educate people if they will end up doing white collar jobs. Remember, that is just waist of ... read full comment
I am total aware, that is why most people finish school with a huge student loan and can never finish paying before they died. Do not educate people if they will end up doing white collar jobs. Remember, that is just waist of their time and resources. Life on this earth is too short to waist on things that would beneficial
Virtue 10 years ago
It is White Collar not White Color. Are you a graduate?
It is White Collar not White Color. Are you a graduate?
dennis awah 10 years ago
Interesting article and a decent call to dialogue.
Ghana's unemployment and educational crises has two foundations, a historical one and a one based on purpose.
Historically , Africa and Africans have valued education ... read full comment
Interesting article and a decent call to dialogue.
Ghana's unemployment and educational crises has two foundations, a historical one and a one based on purpose.
Historically , Africa and Africans have valued education and built a multitude of professions, trades and learnings. from a father teaching his sons how to track and hunt, how to prospect and mine for gold, how to navigate and fish, we can envision Africa in Ancient times as a place where education and skills was key to survival, advancement and progress. it was vibrant from Ancient Egypt 4000 ears ago to the Almoravid and Mali kingdoms of the Sahel in the 10th-12th century AD thereabouts and beyond.
Education and professions took a different turn in the period that preceded our contact with the European. Slavery, Christianity and Colonisation destroyed traditional forms, patterns and places of learning, trade, professions. Christianity which has historically opposed the acquisition of knowledge (Inquisition and wars on heresy and heretics lasted over a thousand years) and the appreciation of alternative views by simply holding that "if you are not of their god, you are of the devil" was a chief instrument used to destroy traditional forms of learning and trade. this principle drove the relationship between Africa and Europe and justified enslavement, genocide and created or worsened subsequent spatial and human problems rife in Africa today such as tribalism and subsistence farming (subsistence farming is not a cultural or traditional practice in Africa, it is a consequence of 400 years of slavery and its related political and social problems such as wars and abandonment of savannah grasslands essential for large scale production of food because they lacked physical protection against slave raiders). This contact with Europe and Christianity forever altered existing structures of education and employment. the effect of 400 years of this relationship will take some time to reverse. Christianity redeems itself by pointing to the many schools and universities they have set up in Africa and how good they are, but I remain concerned that the involvement of Christianity in our education has only served to hide aspects of our history that we should know - such as the slave trading enterprise of the Anglican Church and the Society of the propagation of the Gospel in Ghana (result - our learning of our own history is anaemic and incomplete contributing to our lost sense of purpose)and the propagation of the Christian ideals of rejecting knowledge, critical reasoning, science, alternative views and non Christian traditions and culture contributes immensely to our chew and pour attitude. this historical foundation should help us understand why we cannot produce great thinkers, scientists and industrialist essential to build a relevant and inclusive economy and society but rather good bureaucrats, clerks and process persons such as doctors, lawyers, bankers etc. talents suited to following orders and laid down procedures rather than problem solvers, creative thinkers (who have to think outside the box - Christian education does not encourage this)and technicians.
the second foundation of the crises between education and employment is what I call the "purpose" or "relevance" of our social and economic development. Ghana's development has not been guided by a sense of purpose or relevance, this is best illustrated by the recent calls for a National development plan. This plan must answer the question of why Ghana has not been able to industrialize its most valuable commodity raw materials -gold, cocoa, agricultural products, oil, etc to broaden the demand and need for technical, scientific and problem solving skills that industrialization needs???? What are the relevant skills we need to develop in order to industrialize our raw materials?????? that essential tie in between human and natural resources has not been done. a result of this is the many "universities" in the country offering an excess of business administration and ICT courses, a disregard for practical trainings and technical jobs (a welder employed as a driver???????)and all round lack of professionalism that pervades our current system.
It is really interesting that in Ghana we boast about the Malls, Apartments and grand hotels as signs of our development but fail to account for the many expatriate workers in our country who live in the most exclusive areas in the most exclusive homes and apartments, earn the best salaries in the multinationals that we require to "develop", spend most at the hotels and malls, send their children too only the most expensive, elite schools in Ghana and abroad, doing the jobs "Ghanaians cannot do". We call that development but its really only a modern day colonial empire - the best jobs, pay, homes, entertainment and leisure reserved for the colonial representatives(development partners, strategic investors etc)and few of their local "chiefs" while chicken in Ghana costs 4 times the price than in the USA - yes the price of 1 kilo of chicken in Ghana is four/4 times the price in the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!a kilo of chicken in Ghana is around ten cedis, in the Usa its a dollar and 20cents. does this make sense??????
km agyin 10 years ago
Only industrialization will solve this cycle of unemployment. When we have industrialized and have uninterrupted power and water supply, when we have first class roads and build our railway systems,and when we have built our ... read full comment
Only industrialization will solve this cycle of unemployment. When we have industrialized and have uninterrupted power and water supply, when we have first class roads and build our railway systems,and when we have built our factories and established businesses and when we are mining our iron ore, then there will be jobs for everybody, blue and white color jobs alike.
Nkrumah envisaged a united Africa as a single
Market.ECOWAS is a good start,but the respective countries need to remove all barriers
to allow free flow of people and goods to the whole of ECOWAS.This should encourage the gr ...
read full comment
Africa was a single market for centuries before Nkrumah's great great great great grandmother was born
In the first placed, this new educational established JJ Rawlings has done Ghanaian no good. During the old days, when only few student are able to pass O'level and the move on to Sixth form. Out of these students, only about ...
read full comment
Unemployment is even becoming worst in the USA, do not blame it on Rawlings alone. Are you aware of the number of students that come out or graduate from university each semester; and each academic year (Fall, Spring, Summer? ...
read full comment
I am total aware, that is why most people finish school with a huge student loan and can never finish paying before they died. Do not educate people if they will end up doing white collar jobs. Remember, that is just waist of ...
read full comment
It is White Collar not White Color. Are you a graduate?
Interesting article and a decent call to dialogue.
Ghana's unemployment and educational crises has two foundations, a historical one and a one based on purpose.
Historically , Africa and Africans have valued education ...
read full comment
Only industrialization will solve this cycle of unemployment. When we have industrialized and have uninterrupted power and water supply, when we have first class roads and build our railway systems,and when we have built our ...
read full comment