African university graduates must think first as Africans - Prof. Oduro

Professor George K.T. Oduro, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Coast, says Sub-Sahara Africa educational institutions must as a matter of priority develop African citizenship before thinking global.

He said strategic mechanisms had to be put in place to ensure that citizens of the Sub-region who went through their institutions saw themselves first as Africans and thought as African citizens before thinking as global citizens.

If not, he said, development in the sub-region would continue to be challenging.

The former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, who is also Professor of Educational Leadership at Ghana’s UNESCO Category 11 Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) at the UCC, gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, following an International panel discussion he contributed to on the theme: “Governance in Education: Challenges and Rethinking of Mechanisms”.

The discussion was at an international Webinar Workshop organised by Saudi Arabia’s UNESCO Regional Centre for Quality and Excellence in Education (RCQE).

Prof. Oduro, speaking on the topic, “Challenges of Education Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa” as a representative of IEPA, said, “It is only when our governance system prioritizes African identity in our educational system and produces an African who will first think and behave as an African before thinking as a Global citizen that our educational system can produce an African Scientist who will move beyond academic credentials to a stage of an applied scientist.

“That African Scientist would proactively lead in addressing human security challenges facing the Sub-region”.

Making reference to the 2020 Human Capital Index released by the World Bank, he said the Sub-region had an average of 40 percent which implied that Sub-Sahara Africa had a 60 percent deficit of skilled workers which its educational system must address.

Prof. Oduro noted that strategic governance was crucial in providing the strategic leadership needed for strengthening educational systems towards solving the challenges of access, quality, and equity facing the sub-region