In the wrong lecture theatre

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant

There have been numerous calls from all corners of society for a critical look to be taken at the country’s educational sector as a result of the notable fallen standard of education over the last few decades.

Indeed, many fora have been held at all levels of management all in a bid to address this problem which poses a serious threat to the country’s economic development in the future.

Some people have even suggested that the effects of this problem are currently being felt due to the persistent complains by captains of industry about the quality of some graduates from the country’s tertiary institutions.

While conceding that some efforts have been made by governments over the years to address this nagging national cancer which has almost reached a crisis stage, I insist that some of these problems - mostly regulatory lapses - could have been averted if those put in charge of managing this all important sector of society have been a little bit diligent as far as monitoring and enforcement of rules are concerned. Let’s now take a critical look at some of the lapses bedeviling our educational system.

Private universities, the relevance of their programmes and standards It is an undeniable fact that the public tertiary institutions i.e. universities and polytechnics lack the capacity to absorb every single Ghanaian citizen who has the ability and potential to pursue tertiary level education as a result of the unprecedented increase in the number of students who graduate from our second-cycle institutions nowadays.

This unfortunate state of affairs has necessitated the intervention by the private sector in the provision of tertiary education hence the influx of many private university colleges dotted all over the country.

While this act may be considered a timely intervention, the quality and nature of programmes being run by some of these private universities calls into question their contribution to the socio-economic development of this country.

It is my conviction that a country’s education policy at any point in time should help to produce graduates who have the requisite skills and knowledge which are relevant to development needs of the country at that point in time. It is a well - known fact that most of the public tertiary institutions have conveniently shifted to the production of graduates who major in the humanities because of the high cost involved in training science and technology-biased graduates.

Anybody in doubt should take a cursory look at the proportion of students studying the humanities at our public tertiary institutions, including the ones which were primarily established to run science and technology focused courses i.e. KNUST and the polytechnics. Today, the number of students studying Accountancy, Marketing, Secretaryship and Management in the ten polytechnics across the country exceeds by far those offering science and technology courses.

The same situation applies to some of the country’s public universities. As a country, are we sure this is the direction we should go when we already have thousands, if not millions, of graduates with backgrounds in the humanities roaming our streets, holding folders and files in search of non- existing jobs.

My beef with the private tertiary institutions is that they seem to be compounding the unemployment situation in this country by joining their public counterparts in the production of graduates with humanities backgrounds when the country is in a dire need of doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

If for nothing at all, the private tertiary institutions should be encouraged to take to the training of teachers so that we can fill the over 60,000 teaching vacancies in the classroom. This is not an attempt to denigrate the art and humanities courses such as accounting, journalism, banking, etc but the fact of the matter is that there is very little demand for graduates with these backgrounds in our economy today.

The managers of the educational sector should wake up and ensure products from the sector are trained to meet the current developmental needs of the country. We should stop educating people for education sake.

The few private institutions which have already started the training of health professionals and teachers should be encouraged and supported in whatever way possible so that they can sustain these programmes. Is it so difficult to redirect the resources in our public tertiary institutions to the training of people who can contribute significantly to the development of this country?

I am aware these public institutions were established by Acts of Parliament to train people for specific sectors of the economy but the reality is that times have changed and the ability of the economy to absorb the country’s labour force in arts and humanities areas have reduced drastically over the years hence the need to reallocate our meager resources to the training of the human resource we can utilize in our present circumstances. The education we provide as a country should response to the needs of our time.

The case of pre-university colleges

Another worrying development in the country’s educational sector is the emergence of a certain category of schools branded as ‘pre university colleges’. According to advertisements in the media by many of these schools they serve as bridge or a link between universities and students who could not perform well enough in their secondary school examinations.

These schools who claim to prepare students for diploma certificates in a matter of six months or one year depending on which one you decide to attend or send your ward to, if you are a parent, in my opinion have no right of existence as far as the role they claim to play is concerned. Some of these schools admit students with three SSSCE passes and claim to be preparing them for a six-month or one-year Diploma programmes in areas such as Business Administration, Marketing,

Accounting, etc which would enable them enter university at level 200 or even 300. This seems to be a case of deception because a critical look at the admission policy of most universities in Ghana shows that anybody who intends to use a diploma apart from a university Diploma to enter the university must have passed at least six subjects at the SSSCE level. Something seriously must be wrong with our educational system if indeed six- month Diploma holders are admitted to level 200 or 300 at university just as holders of the polytechnic HND certificate.

The problem I have with our education sector managers is that most often than not, they allow issues like this to degenerate into crisis situations before they begin to take remedial actions. Why should they look on unconcerned when young people who did not perform too well in their secondary school education and should be in remedial schools preparing to better their grades are being lured into believing that a six-month Diploma from these so-called pre university colleges can get them a job in banks, insurance companies, oil and gas companies? Who want to employ a six-month Diploma holder with three or two SSSCE passes when we have university and polytechnic graduates in Banking and Finance, Accounting, Marketing, etc roaming our streets unemployed?

We must be serious in this country. We should not be giving accreditation to institutions to churn out people we have very little or no use for. Countries which have made it all over the world did take a keen interest in the kind of courses being run in their institutions of higher learning to ensure training is tailored to meet the needs of society at every point in their development journeys. Government should therefore take a keen interest in the kind of courses being run in our tertiary institutions, whether private or public.

The Asian tigers we are fond of referring to whenever we have the opportunity to talk about sustained growth and economic development took the pain to invest in the education of their youth in areas where they can contribute significantly to economic development. The government has no other choice than to play a much broader role in designing the curriculum of our institutions of higher learning if we want to alleviate the suffocating effect of youth unemployment.

The fact is that it is usually government that takes the blame when people are unable to find job hence the need for government to take a decisive action in this regard.

Training institutions such as the nurses and teachers training institutions should be expanded and if possible, more of them establish to ensure people who are interested in becoming professionals in these areas have ample chance to do so. Of course, these areas seem to be the only sectors recruitment for jobs is going on now.

Better still, education courses should be attached to the various programmes of study in our tertiary institution so that some of the arts and humanities graduates would find their way into our classrooms to help address the severe shortage of professional teachers in the country.

Writer’s email: kofimarketing@gmail.com