Whoever thinks Ghana can escape the third world status into the first – by sticking to the colonial grammar type elitist education – must think again! We’ve been at this game of hands-off education since the last century, and are – today — back to square one, still borrowing and begging.
Education is supposed to advance meaningful purposes, not wither backwards into advanced poverty. If nothing at all came from the recent stakeholders meeting at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel (January 6, 2015) dubbed “Stakeholder Consultative Forum on the Conversion of Polytechnics to Technical Universities”, there was the realisation that our education system – as it is today – needed an update to justify its social and economic existence.
In a previous column I indicated that while we sat on our hands in Ghana – from primary to the university levels – copying notes and drawing treasure maps of gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite in exercise books to pass exams for certificates, people from other mineral-rich places such as Australia, California and South Africa stood on their feet leveraging value from their precious metals and building world-class cities with quality roads, golden gate bridges, housing, and excellent schools.
Crossroads are junctures in life when one makes choices between useful alternatives. One path may not necessarily be that much better than the other.
The chosen path may be merely a different challenge requiring a different focus; that is all.
But an inflection point – as we discern in Ghana today — is another matter: It is a point of no return; you return to the archaic at your peril.
The predicament was best defined by Albert Einstein when he inferred that the mark of insanity is to continue doing the same meaningless things and expect meaningful results.
Copying notes from Wikipedia for certificates
An inflection point is that point in the life of a country, an organisation, or an individual, where without changing course the entity is destined to be ruined.
Referring to useful education, when Peter Drucker, for example, spoke of tapping “this unused reservoir of human ability and attitude [that] have achieved spectacular increases in productivity and output” in places, he wasn’t talking about a passive model of grammar education where candidates sit behind desks for years listening to talks and copying notes from Wikipedia for certificates.
Education in Ghana is at that cusp of inflection where it will be senseless to continue on a trajectory that is wasting the potential of the youth, and impoverishing the whole country in the process.
I suppose that the meeting to convert the 10 Polytechnics (in Accra, Bolgatanga, Cape Coast, Ho, Koforidua, Kumasi, Sunyani, Takoradi, Tamale, and Wa) to Technical Universities — on the model of the German technical institutions — was for the purpose of carving out a meaningful way forward.
The report
From the report of the technical committee on the conversion (submitted by The National Council for Tertiary Education, December 2014), the focus of the Technical University — or University of Applied Sciences — (as opposed to the Traditional University) is “practice-oriented with focus on solving practical problems” with technology, coupled with approaches that are “skills-driven or acquisition of employable skills.”
Additional focus included “technology development, innovations” and “what must be learnt to respond to industry needs and learner interests.”
The report further indicated that “Engagement with industry means bringing the world of work into the classroom and placing practical knowledge and research results at the disposal of industry. Blending academic pursuits with practical goals of promoting societal and economic wellbeing of the population is one of the hallmarks of universities of applied sciences.”
Great conclusions! But for a Third World country, shouldn’t those meaningful requirements fit the other universities, especially the traditional ones that are marking time with the sit and listen type courses that do not add much value to the practical needs of both the youth and the country?
The needs of a developing nation
While the “Theory and research — Knowledge-driven or quest for new knowledge — Emphasis on mainly disciplinary approach — promotion of scholarship” etc. are categorised as the domain of the traditional university, the needs of a developing nation must transcend the esoteric: the youth must be engaged in meaningful applications as well, no matter the discipline. I have yet to see one discipline that cannot have an application component tagged to it.
We’ve been on that traditional “sitting, lectures, and copying” trajectory for far too long, and that passive ethos has become the shackle hindering progress in Ghana.
Not only that, theory and research tend to be over rated. The bane of progress in Ghana is clearly the fact that we have more reports than we can handle.
There are so many theories and researches out there that need practical applications, implementations, and maintenance.
I am often reminded of an experience at one of the leading universities in Ghana, where I attempted to use a washroom.
The stench of the pile in the bowl was such that with no water running through the pipes, the whole area was smeared.
But out on the walkway, a large pipe in a water chamber was broken, and continued to gush out good water endlessly. But, right across the road was a sign that read, “Faculty of Applied Sciences”.
How much science, research, and theory does one need to know that harvesting rainwater or investing in boreholes can keep the toilets clean all year round in everybody’s interest? [To be continued].
By: Anis Haffer