THE STUBBORN TOPIC OF FALSELY BELIEVING THAT THE UNIVERSITIES EXIST TO TRAIN EVERY STUDENT TO BE READY FOR THEIR JOBS:

THE STUBBORN TOPIC OF FALSELY BELIEVING THAT THE UNIVERSITIES EXIST TO TRAIN EVERY STUDENT TO BE READY FOR THEIR JOBS:

This event advertised in the poster is continuing to trumpet the fallacy that universities are supposed to prepare every student for their job. 

I don't have the time. I would have gone to the venue to tell them off. Universities are not built to train students to fit every situation outside the University. 

That is delusional thinking. 

Every company must operate its own "University" and install a layer of company specific capacity building program to make the employees ready to perform at the top level. 

Let me repeat. 

Universities are not designed to train students to fit into every situation outside the University. 

Those Universities that can go that extra mile in some selected programs have done so through deliberate partnerships with some companies to do it.

 How does an English language department train a student to specifically write every novel in their life time. Or a journalism school on how write every type of report or Law school to win every case. They simply do some and you go and do the rest. 

Education is about Igniting the fire not filling a bucket. Training outcome improvements cost money that is why Ashesi students pay 100,000 GHS a year and students of Public Universities of Ghana pay some 1500 GHS a year while expecting 1,500,000 GHS package. 

Wake from that fakeness. 

And pay the price.

OF QUALITY MANPOWER: 

That means the workplace must build its tentacles along the educational pathway. From cradle to the boardroom.

 The lazy approach of waiting at the end of long winding conveyor belt to catch the goose that lays the golden eggs is not only delusional but stupid.

 Gold cost money and the same cannot be obtained in the quagmire of tax evaders and fraudsters who wish the state dead while the same state to groom the golden egg laying geese. 

 The problem of the underperformance of employees is a cultural problem. Educational system is a small segment of the culture. Religious activities takes 85% of the Ghanaian culture. 

Start your business with an educational program for your ideal employee and build on from there. Don’t be lazy. #grandmarshallvision #zeitgeistgh

Every business must start with a training program. 

THE program above by Fidelity Bank is well done and way to go. Every business must start with a training program. The era of complaining about Universities not preparing students for the workplace stop and yield it's place to company specific training programs.

By the way the Universities know how to do that type of job for some workers brigades like Teachers, Nurses, Ophthalmologists, Pharmacists, Physicians, Physician Assistants, etc where there is high national demand for numbers of such professionals. 

For these unique situations additional specific arrangements are made and the standards of training for hundreds of the students follow the same format. All other areas of work, especially work in small private enterprises, that arrangement needs to be made on the side of the businesses due to their high diversity and low numbers involved.

Those who continue to argue from the position of ignorance:

Let's be clear the gap is a cultural and resource gap. The resources provided to Universities in Ghana do not qualify them to be Universities. All the public universities in Ghana are bankrupt. 

So you can organize the discussions for decades if the resources required to improve the quality of education is not provided. And the learning culture of the students do not change from the excessive focus on religious activities and be more effective on their own intellectual growth, these discussions will continue to be futile.

TOO much politics and NO LEADERSHIP

A few years ago the President {Akufo Addo}, at an event at the University made the same comments about preparing students to be ready for industry. While being aware of the poor funding situation and the many other issues. 

The same President failed to implement the Ghana Research Fund, after the bill was passed by Parliament with strong campaigning by some us. What we need is specific projects with all the resources needed to create the additional desired value. 

Toyota Ghana recently built a wonderful facility for the Engineering School. That is the way to go. That is the discussion we need. On how to create facilities and programs that prepare students using industrial technology and equipment.

Separating Practical Issues from Unrealistic Expectations

The basic point is not about the essentiality of refinement of programs. That is easy, what is hard is getting the resources. The resources questions come before the campaign for such programs. 

The facts are known on how expensive research is and how there is almost nothing available in Ghana for scientists to work with. Remember what we say in AKAN proverbs: "whatever is beautiful cost money". That is not a farfetched argument but rather a practical one. 

UG is now 70,000 versus less than 2000 faculty members. As for space it's been exceeded by 40-50%. It's all about resources, resources, resources. The key position here doesn't cover those teaching 20 years old concepts. My Biochemistry materials are updated every year by design.

Ghana’s FreeSHS in Circumspect: In a Forceful Defense of a Defining and Futuristic National Policy for Youth Development

 Ghana’s FreeSHS in Circumspect: In a Forceful Defense of a Defining and Futuristic National Policy for Youth Development

 

The Universities can use a lot more money yet every year you the same people who agitate for fees to be charged and paid at SHS continue to pressure Parliament to force the universities to keep university fees unchanged. As a result, all the public universities are bankrupt. Why the hypocrisy? How can a university student pay 2400 GHS a year in fees and many still request for payment terms?

 

If there are that great many students at the SHS level who are able and willing to pay fees, why do so many of them struggle to pay school fees at the University? Why haven’t they even forced the universities to increase fees knowing that they have not been paying fees in SHS for the past 8 years? Considering that these are only 20 percent of students from SHS move on to universities, we should not have to witness so many University students struggling to pay fees. The fact that they do is a clear evidence of financial difficulties for many students that persist even at the University.

 

It’s important not to allow the boastfulness of a few loud mouths to destroy the lives of innocent citizens who need this policy as a lifeline. Human capital is vital. Ghanaians voted against the NPP in 2024 but not against FreeSHS. If there is a critical budget deficit for it, let us call for fundraising campaigns to help generate the short fall. It will not be right to allow the great many who got the chance to be denied again when fees are re-introduced now.

 

Did you know that until 2017, there were families outside of the former three northern regions of Ghana who changed the names of their children in order to benefit from free SHS in the northern territories? Investigate and you will find so many.

 

Let’s be watchful.

 

FreeSHS has to be funded even more and as a country, let’s deal with corruption and tax evasion that bankrupts the government. The high cost notwithstanding, the outcome of a well implemented FreeSHS system with all its social benefits could do magic for the country. Imagine we improve it to four years and strengthen professional skills development and competency aspects in the year 4. And also implement reinforcement learning strategies such as requiring the year 4 students to organize tutorials for their juniors. By the time they complete the 4 year -SHS they would be ready for the job market at entry levels. The long-term development dividends should be the main motivation and not the short-term problems with budget deficit. Budget deficit is caused by corruption and economic mismanagement by the Government.

 

On the issues of separating boarding and feeding aspects from free academic training:

 

 I also bought into the separation of boarding from the tuition model until 2020. It looks like most of us don’t know the country we live in. I didn’t know the full extent either. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic we had to teach virtually in 2020. That is where we learned of the number of Ghanaians that didn’t live in proper housing that supports education. Most families are crammed into one room. For them boarding school is the first time they shower with clean water and sleep on a bed with foam. Doing the study will shock you.

 

The cost is high, and measures can be devised to lower the cost and improve quality and also use Ghana card and banking information to force people to declare their means. And limit free boarding to some. Until then decoupling boarding will retard the development of the country. With the best systems for measuring means, only a small percentage will come on top.

 

We can also use technology to solve it all at a fraction of the cost. 1. Digitize all learning materials by the best of teachers and lecturers. 2. Build robust computers with solar charging and AI powered tutor available 24/7. 3. Equipped with internet connectivity for schoolwork only. 4. Limit face-to-face to hands-on work, tutorials and tests only. 5. Organize parents and guardians to supervise home study. 6. Community SHS in every town. 7. Social Care should develop a host family system with the help of churches and charities for students from extremely remote areas. This will help students from remote communities that need to move close to towns. 8. Implement frequent and rigorous testing to drive learning.

 

This system will need a new kind of Ghanaian to achieve but it will be tough to make it work. You know how our people behave. The most practical is use the current system and introduce the digital system for those who can take to it and use the traditional model for the others. With a serious means testing to charge boarding fees for those who can afford to pay. In the meantime, more funding should be provided to continue to improve access and quality. For some people access alone does wonders in their lives ahead of quality.

 

Ghana is majority rural communities

Ghana is majority rural communities and even the urban dwellers live in poor accommodation. Day Schools cannot cover the majority of youth. People need to stop the needless comparison with North America. That is lazy thinking. Enough of the senseless and negative campaign against FreeSHS. We need to invest heavily in youth development and SHS level is the most pivotal.

 

Nations have borrowed 200% of GDP to fight needless wars and still try to justify it. Africa is the only continent that is experiencing the youth bulge. This means youth development will cost more than other sectors of the economy. Other countries have a majority aged population, so their dominant budget cost is health care for the aged. Which problem is better? Spending huge on old folks or spending huge on developing the youth?

 

Communities where day schools will be appropriate, let's do it by all means. But those in small communities scattered across remote rural and undeveloped areas boarding houses provide modern amenities to these youth for the first time in their lives. And prepares them for university. People should not argue as though the only part of Ghana that is important is Accra. It doesn’t look like a lot of arguing from their own educational experiences understand the education they were provided with. Education is an invitation to understand the world beyond one’s tiny direct life experiences. To think beyond one’s small and narrow horizon. There are thousands who live in tiny kiosks even in Accra. Every raining season all their belongings get destroyed and they have to begin life again.

Check the 2020 census.

 

Let’s be watchful.

 

Ghana must win the race of future economic progress with a robust youth development policy and the experiences of the past 8 years (2017-2024) supports an increased budget allocation.