BOOK ON GHANA LAUNCHED IN NEW YORK
TITLED “HIGHER EDUCATION CENTRED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AND GROWTH – GHANA AS A CASE STUDY”
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Read on behalf of Mr. Leslie Kojo Christian, Ghana’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, April 25th 2009.
1. Chairperson, distinguished guests, I wish to thank you, Dr. Gabriel Ayisi, for the invitation extended to me to launch your book on “Higher Education Centered Economic Development and Growth – Ghana as a Case Study” on Saturday, 25th April, 2009.
2. I had accepted this honour sometime ago. I am, however, unable to participate in this event since I will be in Havana, Cuba on this date attending an international conference.
3. Allow me to warmly congratulate you for your brilliant authorship of this book which should attract a wide readership and consequently add to the knowledge of those interested in the development of science and technology education in Ghana. Your work has been described as “a blueprint for development” and I encourage you not to rest on your oars but to turn out more scholarly books of this kind. In a general cursory of your book, you identified Higher education as an important ally in the development of a country. You made this intimation on the premise that, whereas government and private industry are the users of a country’s human capital, it is higher education which is responsible for the development of the human capital potential. We all know that Ghana’s technological development has lagged behind for so many years because our education, in most part, has not been developmentally oriented. We educate our sons and daughters for their individual development without tying such education to national development. We have not created the necessary avenues within the economy to absorb them upon graduation and, in most cases, the courses they undertake bear no relevance in practicality. As the author expresses, for a country to develop technologically, it will need such experts as economists, engineers, scientists, technicians, medical doctors, middle level managers, et cetera to lead its economic development and growth, therefore, we need to refocus the courses offered at the various schools of higher learning to make sure that they are relevant to the country’s economic development. The compelling evidence for why education has become indispensable for economic growth over the last century is that technological advance has increasingly come to underlay economic growth and that technological advance in turn has been fuelled by developments in basic science
We also need to reassess linkages between higher education and government and between higher education and private industry. The author identifies these three as the main stakeholders in Ghana’s economic development and calls for the government and private industry to liaise with higher education in their projections for higher education to restructure its programs in tandem. Whereas companies do their own research, these days, most companies in the west sponsor research at various universities and utilize the results for development. This is what needs to be done in Ghana. We need to stop exporting our raw materials to create jobs for others in the west except for our own, and in this regard, we need to use the various researches undertaken in our universities to create jobs that will add value to our human and material resources. If we can do this, we will be able to limit brain drain. Ghana and Africa in general, need to stop being the producers of raw materials to feed industries in the west by establishing such industries here to process our resources into finished products. If anything at all, we must limit such exports. We must also stop providing the west with cheap labour by giving employment to our sons and daughters within our borders. Research has found that Africa’s brightest and the best have been escaping to the west for years now. In many countries, according to the author, whoever can is getting out seeking lush, verdant pastures elsewhere, for lack of opportunities within our own borders. The burden of these losses, according to the author, is heavier for the country since migrant doctors, engineers, and scientists tend to leave their countries during the most productive years of their lives.
It is important for Ghana to develop its human capital resource simultaneously with its economic development. A study in New England in the United States revealed that it is dangerous if the development of skilled labor and intellectual capital lagged behind a region’s industrial development. In this regard, Ghana needs to undertake its manpower training concurrently with economic planning and development, because, merely increasing educational opportunities without concurrent economic development may result in the perpetuation of the brain drain syndrome. In much the same vein, according to the author, merely spurring economic growth without corresponding increases in the required manpower development is equally disastrous to the economy. According to the author’s book, the African University must be more than an institution for teaching, research and the dissemination of higher learning. It must be accountable to serve the vast majority of people who live in the rural areas. The African University must be committed to active participation in social transformation, economic modernization and the training and upgrading of the total human resources of the nation.
4. I hope you will make this book available for sale in Ghana.
5. I wish you a very successful event. LESLIE KOJO CHRISTIAN AMBASSADOR & PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE
TO THE UNITED NATIONS 24th April, 2009 HM/AD/04/09
