Whom are you trying to deceive here? First your claim of debate is as bogus as your article. What you refused to tell your readers is your ended the debate and chose to go on strike. So your nonsense that serial writers ar ... read full comment
Whom are you trying to deceive here? First your claim of debate is as bogus as your article. What you refused to tell your readers is your ended the debate and chose to go on strike. So your nonsense that serial writers are hijacking debate on Potag/Utag is neither here nor there. If anything at all, it is rather your stinking image and the fraudulent way some of your members who should not be claiming book & research allowance in the first place which should concern you.
Second, your group/association, using blackmail tactics as a weapon to keep the status quo is as childish as any i've heard from serious academics. By the way, when parents pay their wards school fees and you chose to on strike, why don't you ask government to refund parents/guardians by deducting from salaries for not teaching.
Democracy in itself is good except when people like you turned into dirty games at the expense of others. Why can't every Ghanaian stop bribery and corruption at the workplace, churches, lorry parks, market place, schools etc so that people will not continue when they enter politics as well.
Yaw Ben 9 years ago
Bernard, so you mean you don’t see anything good about this article. It’s about the most educative piece on the subject under discussion. The points you try to raise here are rather totally misplaced. Anyway people like y ... read full comment
Bernard, so you mean you don’t see anything good about this article. It’s about the most educative piece on the subject under discussion. The points you try to raise here are rather totally misplaced. Anyway people like you are pigs who cannot appreciate jewels. It’s as simple as that!
Ken 9 years ago
Don't mind Bernard, he is one of the tribalistic NDC serial writers. Shame!
Don't mind Bernard, he is one of the tribalistic NDC serial writers. Shame!
.yag 9 years ago
Hmmm ! Those supposed to write textbooks for the taxpayers kids are on strike waiting for tax money to buy other peoples knowledge.Ask for funding to print textbooks written by you for students to buy.Allowances for research ... read full comment
Hmmm ! Those supposed to write textbooks for the taxpayers kids are on strike waiting for tax money to buy other peoples knowledge.Ask for funding to print textbooks written by you for students to buy.Allowances for research good but textbooks is a shame. Stop chew and pour intellectuals mentality.
Kofi 9 years ago
Come on. Nothing comes from nothing. if there is no reading, how can there be research?
Come on. Nothing comes from nothing. if there is no reading, how can there be research?
.yag 9 years ago
Kofi most authors of the textbooks taxpayer is paying for have less degrees than them.It's students who should chased books not already Master of the subject.We need creativity at that level not copy and paste.
Kofi most authors of the textbooks taxpayer is paying for have less degrees than them.It's students who should chased books not already Master of the subject.We need creativity at that level not copy and paste.
IDRIS PACAS 9 years ago
Thanks for your contributions.
You spent nearly all your writing drawing readers' attention to contributions made by others. What about yours? Next time, make your arguments and let readers compare and contrast.
Thoug ... read full comment
Thanks for your contributions.
You spent nearly all your writing drawing readers' attention to contributions made by others. What about yours? Next time, make your arguments and let readers compare and contrast.
Though having problems with the proposed National Research Fund and sympathizing with my lecturers, I still feel that Potag and Utag must prove that they really still deserve the money.
No one needs to go into archives to know that the majority of the research work being conducted is a typical cut-and-paste work. Please, spare us the time. Show Ghanaians the impact of your work since 1992 when the allowances were instituted.
Where are the books? The book allowance component is not merely meant for lecturers to use to buy books written by their colleagues. All that the majority of you do is to produce handouts which are forced-sold to students.
Sad to compare a 'holy' job such as lecturing to an evil-padded work such as politics in Ghana. Those in the academia who feel that politicians are taking so much can peacefully go and join them to take the evil monies.
Probably overfocused on previous contributors,you fail to proofread your article. Some of the grammatical errors are just unpardonable provided you're a doctor as indicated.
Li 9 years ago
There are checks in place already to hold the recipients of BRA accountable.A lecturer's appointment is renewable and the employer can decide otherwise if there is nothing to show for in using the BRA.So government's reason a ... read full comment
There are checks in place already to hold the recipients of BRA accountable.A lecturer's appointment is renewable and the employer can decide otherwise if there is nothing to show for in using the BRA.So government's reason advanced so far to abolish the BRA is flawed.
Ben 9 years ago
Politicians do not love their people.Selfishness always underpin their policies.It has been proven that"...man has dominated man to his injury" ( Eclesiastic 8:9)
Politicians do not love their people.Selfishness always underpin their policies.It has been proven that"...man has dominated man to his injury" ( Eclesiastic 8:9)
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
Been too busy to take a look at the Opinion section of Ghanaweb until now, when I should be preparing to turn in. I'll therefore keep my response to this pathetic attempt to justify those farcical allowances. After all, the l ... read full comment
Been too busy to take a look at the Opinion section of Ghanaweb until now, when I should be preparing to turn in. I'll therefore keep my response to this pathetic attempt to justify those farcical allowances. After all, the little time I have is better spent on completing the series of articles I've planned to dwell on the intellectual bankruptcy of these lecturers which is at the crux of the strike and the continuing backwardness of Ghanaians (not Ghana, mind you). And people like Dr Cudjoe wants us to remain developing people forever, while they suck the little cream on the pudding.
In my article in qs, I said clearly that I was opposed to the introduction of the allowances in 1995 and advanced reasons why they are very much counterproductive to the very objective it was claimed they were being introduced. I shall rehash those reasons in my coming series even though they are so obvious.
I responded to Akwasi Ayanful's fallacious and fatuous arguments in support of the allowances. I expanded upon that on Dr Bokor's article. In fact, his article is not befitting of an academic, if, indeed, he is one. Below is just one of my interjections.
"Akwasi, I told you before that your arguments in support of maintaining the BRA are fallacious and thus fatuous. I intend to deal with that in a full article but briefly, in logic, even the fact that the sun rises from the east the last billion years doesn't mean that it'd rise from the east tomorrow. It is just a probability. So, we are only seeing some stars which had exploded light years ago and were no longer in existence as at now.
In law, this logic is recognised by the previous crimes of an accused not being tendered in evidence in a new case against the person and the jury is prevented from knowing them. In short, you can't use the previous actions of govt to justify your demand for BRA. I can also mention a whole host of things govt is fulfilling its bargain. E.g., paying your salaries and even the $7m per annum for the scurrilous BRA from 1995 to date! I objected when it was instituted and I am doing so now!
Anyway, can you also accept that the govt is broke and so cannot continue to pay the farcical BRA and then fund a National Research Fund to boot and implement other sound policies to replace the dysfunctional system as I enumerated in my article, such as stocking the libraries, IT-based information systems (it is the future since books are being digitalised), giving monies to institutions to do internal research, etc., etc.
Your claim that the money might end up in somebody's pocket is silly.
Finally, let all and sundry know that the objective of the BRA is NOT to TOP UP the salaries of lecturers. If it has become that and that's the rational for keeping it, as being argued by some, e.g., Dr SAS - which indeed is the truth - then I am afraid, we have sunk to the basest level of thinking if we accept that as a rational reason to retain it.
Andy-K
-----------------------
Your quoting that tribally jaundiced and mentally warped jerk to malign and cast aspersions on my good self and Dr Bokor is scurrilous. I don't live in any glass house, As I die-hard Nkrumaist, I neither support the NDC nor the NPP. I've been over the years one of the fiercest and consistent critics of the NDC, just as the NPP. I have no respect for both of them. My Staying in the Frying Pan article was like a prophecy of what the Mahama regime has turned out to be. It is therefore pathetic for you to try to use the dirty tribal angle to lump me with NDC supporters from the VR and claim that shaped my candid opinions. I opposed the allowances when they were introduced by Rawlings. What does that mean to your unthinking brain, PhD holder? And are people from the VR the only persons supporting the govt position? Pathetic! Since you are also from the VR, are you clamouring for the continuation of the diabolical allawas so that some mad people don't throw stones at your glass house?
I'll be back!
Andy-K
Dr Alfred B Cudjoe 9 years ago
Dear Andy,
Re: Serial Writers Hijacking Debate on POTAG/UTAG Strike
…Under the Guise of Intellectual Debate
It’s good to read your reaction to my recent article on the POTAG/UTAG strike and discussions taking pla ... read full comment
Dear Andy,
Re: Serial Writers Hijacking Debate on POTAG/UTAG Strike
…Under the Guise of Intellectual Debate
It’s good to read your reaction to my recent article on the POTAG/UTAG strike and discussions taking place on it. While assuring you of my sincere respect for your opinion, I would like to draw your attention to a number of things. The first one is the need to avoid personal attacks otherwise you’ll be sacrificing whatever arguments you intend to make. I won’t be lured into following that path because, as it’s said, when a lunatic snatches your clothes while you’re in the bathroom it’s wise not to run after him or her.
Secondly, it’s always important to read articles well before reacting to them since rushing to reply, as you seem to have done to mine because you’ve been too busy, would not allow you to handle some arguments properly. This is because you’ve given me the impression that you didn’t take your time to fully digest crucial arguments I made in the article. As a result instead of dealing with issues I raised, your lengthy waffle only contains swear words which you intend directing at lecturers in particular and Ghanaians in general.
Probably the only point you attempted to make is that the government is broke, but I don’t think the authorities have made that point to lecturers. Indeed the sector minister, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, is on record to have told lecturers at a congregation in the auditorium of University of Education, Winneba, that she was replacing the research and book allowance with a research fund because, contrary to what lecturers were thinking, she rather wanted to help them. Of course lecturers’ reaction was that she could go and sell that argument to those who would listen to her.
Andy, your ‘government is broke’ argument appears lame when viewed in the background of the waste that characterises our administration of late. Just think of huge officially induced judgement debts being paid to undeserving individuals and companies, the drawing of fat allowances by government officials and their hangers-on (staffers, aids, etc.), colossal amounts being pumped into sham workshops, seminars and conferences. The list can go on. Now the argument here is if government can oversee the wanton misappropriation of funds in this way then they have no moral right to take from lecturers facilities that, by their condition service, are to help them in their work, citing as reason the lack of funds.
It’s unfortunate also that you misunderstood the point I made about Ewes and the Volta Region, using the living in a glass house metaphor. The point I sought to make here is that people using typically Ewe names should know that they are vulnerable before people who easily resort to certain kinds of generalisation because of how of polarised our country has become politically and tribally. I also tried to explain how people use the voting pattern in the region and perceived unconditional support for NDC to malign people of the region as a whole.
You asked whether the Volta Region is the only region from which the NDC receives massive support. No, but it is the only one which consistently gives 100% support to the party. It’s even more worrying when you listen to people who provide reason for such a one-sided political game. Some people get worried when they find themselves in a team where every player is only left-footed. This is because they think a society needs to be dynamic and know when change is needed. For the sake of this argument, whether you, personally, are NDC or not, is immaterial. It is only a problem when, in our discussions, we appear never to see anything wrong with whatever NDC does.
Your zeal and the desire to write are quite apparent. An Ibo proverb says, however, that he who carries a deity is not a king. Similarly, I’d say the one who wields ‘big English’ is not necessarily making a good argument. It’s good to write and write but we would be saving our precious time by making our points as straight to the point as possible. We cannot always win arguments. Once you feel you’ve made your point, don’t belabour it. Leave judgement to the larger readership. Our people have a saying: When water remains in your mouth for too long, it turns into saliva.
Thanks,
Alfred
Danielson 9 years ago
Are we Ghanaians? How can you call someone foolish Dr?
Are we Ghanaians? How can you call someone foolish Dr?
Solomon 9 years ago
This article is too one-sided and even attacking the whole Volta region because two Ewes wrote an article based on their opinion. It is very distasteful and unfortunate. The writers needs to be more objective.
This article is too one-sided and even attacking the whole Volta region because two Ewes wrote an article based on their opinion. It is very distasteful and unfortunate. The writers needs to be more objective.
BANDIT 9 years ago
Stand up and be counted. A good, sane piece.
Stand up and be counted. A good, sane piece.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
For the records and for posterity, here is my "offending" article. Let objective readers read it and determine this is an article from an NDC supporter from the VR. Besides, let them judge the content against this piece of cr ... read full comment
For the records and for posterity, here is my "offending" article. Let objective readers read it and determine this is an article from an NDC supporter from the VR. Besides, let them judge the content against this piece of crap in support of the farcical allowances.
-----------------------
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 all 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, for example.
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
Jamkle Dickson 9 years ago
It is a shame that people like Andy C. Y. Kwawukume who threw his certificate away in order to clean the white man's shit in Norway and now in the UK is rubbishing such a balanced argument.
Come home and work for Ghana if ... read full comment
It is a shame that people like Andy C. Y. Kwawukume who threw his certificate away in order to clean the white man's shit in Norway and now in the UK is rubbishing such a balanced argument.
Come home and work for Ghana if you are worth what you claim to be!
Denis 9 years ago
This article hits below the belt.It lacks balance and objectivity and its one sidedness speaks volume of the quality of our education system and its leaders.Either the POTAG is unnecessarily being greedy or playing politics w ... read full comment
This article hits below the belt.It lacks balance and objectivity and its one sidedness speaks volume of the quality of our education system and its leaders.Either the POTAG is unnecessarily being greedy or playing politics with an otherwise good suggestions by government to streamline a flaw whereby people are given tax payers money for research work but turn out to be their pocket money.
The simple answer is for the state control universities to subscribe to electronic libraries and AZ data bases where every academic work can be accessed from home or the university libraries.This is what happens in all advance universities and I can't see why we can not do same.
Depending on the methodology the e- libraries should be sufficient for research.Quantitative methods though could have access to the research fund because the way these allowances are being abused is disheartening to the tax payer.
nana badu 9 years ago
LAZINESS IS UR JOB N STOP DEFRUADING THE STATE BY INCLUDING THE NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT SUPOSE TO TAKE THAT MONEY. YOU NEVER MENTION OF THAT BECAUSE UR ARE HAPPY TO BE DEFRUADING GOV'T. SHAME ON.
LAZINESS IS UR JOB N STOP DEFRUADING THE STATE BY INCLUDING THE NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT SUPOSE TO TAKE THAT MONEY. YOU NEVER MENTION OF THAT BECAUSE UR ARE HAPPY TO BE DEFRUADING GOV'T. SHAME ON.
Jamkle Dickson 9 years ago
If government thinks there are people who are taking the book and research allowance but do not deserves it, what prevents government from deleting the names of those persons. It is only incompetent government who pays monies ... read full comment
If government thinks there are people who are taking the book and research allowance but do not deserves it, what prevents government from deleting the names of those persons. It is only incompetent government who pays monies e.g. judgment debts to undeserving persons. Lecturers deserve their book and research allowance and they will get it no matter what, period!
Kwaku 9 years ago
The word, 'temporal' in Paragraph 6, Line 4 should have been 'temporary'. Dr. Cudjoe, learn your English well.
The word, 'temporal' in Paragraph 6, Line 4 should have been 'temporary'. Dr. Cudjoe, learn your English well.
Danielson 9 years ago
Andy should stop cleaning shit in the UK and return to Ghana to serve his country, if he is worth what he claims to be.
Andy should stop cleaning shit in the UK and return to Ghana to serve his country, if he is worth what he claims to be.
Essel 9 years ago
well said. This government for me is an autocratic. How can a government spearhead without a proper and adequate consultation?
well said. This government for me is an autocratic. How can a government spearhead without a proper and adequate consultation?
Whom are you trying to deceive here? First your claim of debate is as bogus as your article. What you refused to tell your readers is your ended the debate and chose to go on strike. So your nonsense that serial writers ar ...
read full comment
Bernard, so you mean you don’t see anything good about this article. It’s about the most educative piece on the subject under discussion. The points you try to raise here are rather totally misplaced. Anyway people like y ...
read full comment
Don't mind Bernard, he is one of the tribalistic NDC serial writers. Shame!
Hmmm ! Those supposed to write textbooks for the taxpayers kids are on strike waiting for tax money to buy other peoples knowledge.Ask for funding to print textbooks written by you for students to buy.Allowances for research ...
read full comment
Come on. Nothing comes from nothing. if there is no reading, how can there be research?
Kofi most authors of the textbooks taxpayer is paying for have less degrees than them.It's students who should chased books not already Master of the subject.We need creativity at that level not copy and paste.
Thanks for your contributions.
You spent nearly all your writing drawing readers' attention to contributions made by others. What about yours? Next time, make your arguments and let readers compare and contrast.
Thoug ...
read full comment
There are checks in place already to hold the recipients of BRA accountable.A lecturer's appointment is renewable and the employer can decide otherwise if there is nothing to show for in using the BRA.So government's reason a ...
read full comment
Politicians do not love their people.Selfishness always underpin their policies.It has been proven that"...man has dominated man to his injury" ( Eclesiastic 8:9)
Been too busy to take a look at the Opinion section of Ghanaweb until now, when I should be preparing to turn in. I'll therefore keep my response to this pathetic attempt to justify those farcical allowances. After all, the l ...
read full comment
Dear Andy,
Re: Serial Writers Hijacking Debate on POTAG/UTAG Strike
…Under the Guise of Intellectual Debate
It’s good to read your reaction to my recent article on the POTAG/UTAG strike and discussions taking pla ...
read full comment
Are we Ghanaians? How can you call someone foolish Dr?
This article is too one-sided and even attacking the whole Volta region because two Ewes wrote an article based on their opinion. It is very distasteful and unfortunate. The writers needs to be more objective.
Stand up and be counted. A good, sane piece.
For the records and for posterity, here is my "offending" article. Let objective readers read it and determine this is an article from an NDC supporter from the VR. Besides, let them judge the content against this piece of cr ...
read full comment
It is a shame that people like Andy C. Y. Kwawukume who threw his certificate away in order to clean the white man's shit in Norway and now in the UK is rubbishing such a balanced argument.
Come home and work for Ghana if ...
read full comment
This article hits below the belt.It lacks balance and objectivity and its one sidedness speaks volume of the quality of our education system and its leaders.Either the POTAG is unnecessarily being greedy or playing politics w ...
read full comment
LAZINESS IS UR JOB N STOP DEFRUADING THE STATE BY INCLUDING THE NAMES OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT SUPOSE TO TAKE THAT MONEY. YOU NEVER MENTION OF THAT BECAUSE UR ARE HAPPY TO BE DEFRUADING GOV'T. SHAME ON.
If government thinks there are people who are taking the book and research allowance but do not deserves it, what prevents government from deleting the names of those persons. It is only incompetent government who pays monies ...
read full comment
The word, 'temporal' in Paragraph 6, Line 4 should have been 'temporary'. Dr. Cudjoe, learn your English well.
Andy should stop cleaning shit in the UK and return to Ghana to serve his country, if he is worth what he claims to be.
well said. This government for me is an autocratic. How can a government spearhead without a proper and adequate consultation?
stupid man
A swine like you cannot appreciate a jewell