A National Critical Thinking Programme: For Real Change

I have been told by friends that the change through the election outcome has positive implications for all facets of Ghanaian endeavours. Whether they stated that in jest or in seriousness, I have not yet fathomed. I am not very old, but I know that change, conditioned upon critical perspective and positive actions only, yields real difference. Therefore, a mere change in government does not mean there will be real changes for improvement in the state, unless change is actually targeted.

However, the contemporary Ghanaian society has been subjected to so much disregard for hard work, order and discipline that one wonders how it can manage the intellectual adjustment critical for the hoped for change. That goes beyond exchanging one political party for another, or making certain drastic moves in national structures. It is about mobilizing a citizenry conscientious enough to place humanity first. If leadership and followers would be motivated by community interests rather than selfish gains, if the residents would work for long-term benefits rather than for immediate stomach needs, if we collectively grasped that the deliberate errors against the nation and environment we commit today would confront us in our old age and continue for centuries after we have left this world, we would actually pursue diligence, honesty, justice, frugality, patience, environmental protection, sustainable development, to name eight agencies that can dictate positive change.

I am often labelled an idealist, but even I never delude myself into believing that there is perfection in this world. I only insist that we all refrain from compromising the principles that constitute the moral fibre of our society. And that we can do. If we did that, the magnitude of our errors would not be so overwhelming as to submerge our entire society in the quagmire of primitive behaviour, as it pertains in the current lawless environment. To inch our way out of the quagmire, we need a national critical thinking programme.

We do not have – nor desire – perfect people in this country, but we have brave personalities – analytical professionals, objective in outlook, appreciably disciplined personalities – who can spearhead such a programme to the most desirable levels. Handlers of that programme should be among those pillars of personalities who work assiduously to nurture human potential for the nation. They should not only be intelligent elders, but they should have that refreshing ability to wield a double-edged sword with which they constructively critique, compliment, correct and recommend all agencies for good works. I know Ghanaians who fit that bill to perfection.

Let me reiterate that a national critical thinking programme would not need to feature perfect individuals. Rather, it would need personalities who have led exemplary lives. Those who practice what they preach. They can admit that they are wrong and make amends. They empathise. They fear God, believe in and respect fellow human beings. Above all, they are impartial, human focused, community-oriented. In other words, we still have conscientious ones among us, even if they constitute a minority. Due to that minority, this nation has not completely sunk into an abyss of utter decadence. Let me explain a bit.

The week after elections, I listened to a radio programme on campaign promises and what possibly motivated Ghanaians to vote the way they did. When the point about tax cuts was raised, one of the panellists, a popular journalist, a political activist, or may be a sycophant, a member of a pressure group and a host of a talk show declared nonchalantly that the elected party promised tax cuts, so we are waiting to see how they would achieve that feat. Another panellist from the ruling party took a similar stand. In other words, they are not involved; it’s the others’ duty.

More often than not, the average Ghanaian attitude towards issues pertaining to the nation is not based on rational assessment or long-term societal benefits. Rather, it is determined by a person’s religious, cultural, socio-political affiliations, to mention these. Religion and politics have blinded the ordinary Ghanaian so much that horrible atrocities are swept under the carpet by misplaced kindness. Complicity is the order of the day.

I have been taught that societal structures are established per operational rules and regulations in order that society can function. Residents make the rules and regulations operational so that normalcy can reign. Following that logic, our national dilemma begins where such rules are flouted with impunity, mostly, by the very agencies that ought to ensure the implementation of the regulations. For example, students do not want to study, yet they want top marks. What is worse, unscrupulous teachers are willing to dash marks in order to pacify such misguided students.   

Our work force has become a jungle where primitive behaviour – sheer aggression, tardiness, waste and cheating are endorsed by key personalities, and emulated by the young. Those who have oversight responsibilities are terrified of rewarding good performance and penalising wrong doing. In fact, quite often those who do the right thing become pariah, but individuals and groups who indulge in great misdeeds are respected. Such conduct has permeated the whole society, so the nation has become a jungle.

Sycophancy has completely besieged our society, so non-performing officers are honourable personalities. Instead of serving the masses, leaders are rather worshipped. The latter cannot be wrong. Regardless of their actions or inactions, they will be fanatically supported by a cross-section of society. I am not implying that Ghanaians have monopolised sycophancy; I am stressing that we have deliberately encouraged such outrageous behaviour to the most nauseous levels. And it all boils down to sating immediate needs, while utterly sacrificing future benefits.

Through the current misdeeds of the average citizenry, we are collectively negating our very humanity. Intelligent human beings do things to benefit themselves, yet we are engaging in works that harm us and our environment. We waste or divert resources and heighten hunger, poverty and diseases in the country. We bypass regulations and destroy the environment. We flout rules and endanger lives, only to turn and blame others. Amidst such a perfidious environment, we are hoping for a change, from one person.

A national critical thinking programme can heighten awareness of the destructive path we have been treading. It would sensitize residents to the treachery we stand to reap. It would showcase good works and demonstrate how such can be replicated. Yes, let us sound the strongest alarm that we are the only collective agents that can turn things in the right direction. Indeed, we cannot change every Ghanaian, but we can motivate the misled to turn to good works. I am initiating this programme. Collaborators?

Technology in Polls & National Identification

I wrote that technology would not win the 2016 elections, but wisdom and intelligence would. That presupposed that the human intelligence behind technology makes the difference. The stories explaining how the side that won the election utilised Information Communication Technology (ICT) on December 7, 2016 are simply fascinating. I like to get my facts right before I spread information, so I have been gathering bits and pieces of information from all angles, not just from party-faithful. The communication network set up by the victorious party was so tight, so well inter-connected, sofast and accurate that by 11pm that evening, they knew they had won, were sure enough of their position to announce at 2am on December 8, 2016 that they had won the election. I missed that announcement, because I never lose sleep over vote counting. I look for the results the following morning, from the very media I don’t trust, ha! The media is a destroyer cum benefactor. So I a very detached follower of politics, but I am digressing.

Guess what. In spite of the opponents’ anger and labelling of the announcement as premature and irresponsible, the figures didn’t change much till the Commissioner announced the results endorsing the premature announcement. Yes, the results trickled in even past the required 72 hours for declaring outcome, but the decisive electoral results were secured within six hours of vote counting. I remember that in 2008 when this victorious side lost, and it played the same game, trying to restrain the then Commissioner from declaring the results, because they had not received the full complement of the votes, the latter countered that considering the bulk results that had been received, and the difference in the percentage of votes by each side, even if the complaining side won the rest of the yet to be received votes, they would never cover the gap, based upon which logic, he declared the ruling party victorious. Politicians have such selective memory!

In an age when electronic communication can be delivered across the globe in nanoseconds, with appreciable security and precision, why will a political group not utilise that channel for effective, and authentic communication. We live in fascinating times indeed. If Mr. Barow of the Gambia had anticipated Mr. Yaya Jammeh’s unsavoury old trick, he might have aligned himself with the technology-savvy team used by the elected party in Ghana.

For six hours between 5pm December 7 and 2am December 8, Ghana was located in the 21^st Century, through ICT. In 2009, an IBM group from the US was engaged by my Institution, to computerise our system. Whilst working with them to formulate a curriculum, they told me that we were 20 years behind the US in ICT. I would even take us farther back to the Eighteenth Century.  Let me substantiate that.

I have had five different biometric registrations since 2012, in this country, by agencies owned by one employer – Ghana Government. The Electoral Commission (EC) changed from manual to biometric. I was under the impression that it would release the results for the other government agencies, as done elsewhere. So imagine my surprise when the Controller and Accountant General Department showed up months later to biometrically register government employees. I asked one officer why they didn’t contact the EC for the data. I don’t remember the response.

However, just before the elections when the EC opened the voter’s register for the voter confirmation exercise, I asked a female officer why they did not release the information into a national database for utilisation by other government agencies. She told me that if any of the agencies requested, they would release the data. I countered that communities elsewhere cut cost through biometric registration, because the EC would feed other agencies with such data. But there is more.

The Driving & Licensing Authority (DVLA) also changed its system, so I did another registration in 2014 for a driver’s licence. When I had to renew my passport in 2015, I underwent a biometric registration by the Ghana Immigration Service. Sometime this year, The Social Security and National Insurance Trust announced that it had started registering contributors biometrically. We all had to undergo physical registration for the process. In all the instances, fingerprints and all the hocus-pocus of the biometric process were repeated. What a system.

My national health insurance has expired and the system has also gone biometric, so another registration awaits me. Meanwhile, the gallant policemen who are ever present on our roads are firmly stuck in the manual operation mode. Last year, when I was travelling to the Ashanti Region, I was stopped for over speeding. They asked for my license, which they were going to keep to ensure that I appeared in court. I asked them why they would send me to court for over speeding instead of giving me a ticket. They laughed. I also asked them why they needed to keep my licence, because I was on their database, they have a forensic laboratory, so tracing me should pose no problem for them. They smirked and shrugged that they knew not about any forensic lab. How strange! When the lab was opened, it was featured in primetime news on national TV. That is Ghana for you, as my students often tell me. Amidst such bizarre implementation of technology, a political party summoned a team that actually utilised technology.

I have a plea for the elected party. Let this same team complete the national identification programme started in 2008 and abandoned due to change of government. It doesn’t have invent the wheel. It simply has to pull data from all the fragmented government databases. Getting people in the public sector would be quite easy, since they are paid through the same agencies. Through the DVLA and the National Health Scheme and EC, about 70-80 % of the private sector could be captured. I am sure that the team could be innovative about capturing those who would be floating elements.

I am pleading that the IT team be used because if it were left to any local agency, it would allocate a contract to a business entity, so that the awarding agency can get a 5 or 10 % cut, as they have it in local parlance, and they wouldn’t even do a clean job. Please, New Government, move this country forward through a national identification system, which would also be a solid foundation for an authentic national intelligence system, for better social services. Using the IT team would be a frugal way to establish a costly national legacy.

Make National Identification a national priority, please!

Technology in 2016 Polls

Since my last posting, I have been accused of self-righteousness by no other person than the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr. Kwasi Gyan Apenteng. It is understandable that he should be upset, after all, I am skeptical about the intended collaboration of NMC and telecommunication companies to check social abuse on election day. However, not only do I remain unrepentant but have even strengthened my position since the alleged hacking of the US election process by some Russian hackers. If the almighty US system could be hacked during election, possibly influencing the results, then what cannot be done to ravish an already tottering Ghanaian IT system?

By the way, I am puzzled by Mr. Donald Trump’s silence over the hacking issue, because if the tables had turned, he would have gone ballistics and asked for a revoting. In retrospect, all the time that he was crying that the system was rigging the electoral process for Mrs. Clinton, what if he was actually saying I am going to rig the elections? Until the hacking allegation was raised, all accepted the election results, which situation Donald Trump likely anticipated, and could have capitalised on, if he had anything to do with the alleged technological manipulation, but I have digressed.  

I really am apprehensive about IT manipulation since there were rumours that the Ghanaian fax system for transmitting election results to the collating room in the 2012 elections was manipulated. The rumour traced the fax line to somewhere in Dzorwulu, Accra. Apparently, the results being transmitted to the collating room in Accra were changed there. The rumour linked Chinese with the hacking technology. I do not know if that rumour was investigated, but I have been telling friends that stakeholders must pay particular attention to the railway lines being laid in the Western Region, because it is being laid by Chinese, and it is an underground system, both operational factors in the rumoured reroute in 2012, but I have digressed again.

It is Monday, December 5, 2016, two days before elections, yet the political pairings go on, even by the national TV. Why does the NMC not begin by stopping those political pairings? Studios ought to be directed to air objective dialogues by seeking expert opinions on issues. Yes, everyone is subjective in perception, but true communicators can lead discussions by exploring claims by politicians, pragmatic implications of campaign promises, exposing falsehood, to mention these. Of course, this would be possible with a real investigative media front.

On Saturday, December 3, 2016, I was flipping channels for quality news. I stopped at Joy Prime because Mr. Kwaku Baako was a panelist on the newsfile programme. As usual, the politicians were there, but with Mr. Baako on the panel, I knew I would get analysis. I did. NPP and NDC did their usual thing. The NDC person was worryingly entertaining; the body language and utterings bespoke mere youthful exuberance. I was happy when Mr. Baako hinted that he would need to learn and grow on the job. I wholeheartedly hoped that the young Felix got the message, or did he? After the politicians spoke, Mr. Baako came in with documents and thorough analysis through which he exposed the shallowness of the political perspective. May be the Chairman of the NMC watched the programme, but then he and I agree on the analytical and objective stance of both Messrs. Baako and Duodu, so I don’t even know why he is upset with me.

His other point was that the length of my article was inappropriate for a social media platform. To be fair to him, I was surprised myself at the length, because I started by wanting to be brief. I told him I had to let off steam, among other reasons. But the Chairman should know that there is no hard and fast rule regarding the length of articles posted on social media platforms. Yes, the channel is usually explored for brief messages, and most Ghanaians don’t read, but nothing prevents us from posting long, serious articles. I promise to be brief this time.

The point I have been making is that we ought to be serious as a people and explore academic and pragmatic approaches to national issues. We can do that through legitimate research. I advocate that policy makers should take academia seriously and challenge the latter to serious research and make workable recommendations to government and industry. Research is the only path that would make this country progress. Since we do not have that, politicians destroy education, exploit Ghanaians through lies and embezzlement, then buy their votes come election time.

This past weekend, political parties have been entertaining my community through carnival. Yes, get them to dance and walk long distances till the point of exhaustion, fete them and let them go home to sleep. The youth enjoy themselves; the greedy ones move from one camp to another, their way of counter exploiting cheating political entities. A great way to interrogate governing policies, manifestoes, and national development infrastructure or lack of such.

The Chairman can be upset with me all he can, but even he cannot run away from the harsh realities of this nation. When we fertilise the environment with everything partisan, we cannot expect to wake up on December 8, 2016, and hope to monitor social media platforms in order to avoid chaos. It does not take a day to create trouble. Events build up to a climax, and we are dutifully creating events. IT doesn’t solve problems; humans explore IT intelligently to solve human issues, but we all know that. Ooops, did I promise to be brief!

I still believe in the discernment of fellow Ghanaians, their intelligence and desire for peace. We are not completely devoid of decency. I reiterate that these qualities will take us through peaceful election. One of the nations with the best data security system has allegedly fallen victim to IT hacking. I repeat: How does Ghana’s fragile system fare? I would love to be proved wrong, so Chairman, I am holding you to the challenge: Mobilise the communication media to check hooliganism on election day.

Ooops, I did promise to be brief!

NMC Alliance with Telecommunication Companies over Social Media Abuse

I read with a great deal of cynicism the announcement by the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr. Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, regarding the proposed collaboration between the Commission and telecommunication companies to check social media abuse on election day. My cynicism is borne on the fact that neither of these two agencies have played significant roles in safeguarding the rights of ordinary Ghanaians.

About 90 % of the time, our airwaves are saturated with mere political talk, which actually constitute exploitation of decent Ghanaians. Media houses fail to refresh the public with real news. Mostly, they bring personalities from the NPP and NDC camps, setting them up to argue. The argument is usually not geared towards any constructive analysis of issues but ridiculous verbal wrangling of what one party has done or has not done. After torturing listeners with baseless debate, they open their phone lines so that uninformed callers can prolong the torture for poor listeners. Occasionally, one gets Mr. Kwaku Baako or Mr. Cameron Duodu and a few such insightful ones to give us analytical perspectives. I do not remember the NMC doing anything to sanitise the airwaves, and the media houses have continued to dope listeners with vulgar politics.

The only beneficiaries in this environment are the telecommunication companies, because the calls help their business. These companies who fail woefully to honour their primary responsibilities are helped in business by media houses. The former perform social responsibilities instead of honouring their primary responsibilities of providing communication services. The NMC and National Communications Authority (NCA) have never sanctioned any service provider for poor or disservice to customers. In fact, even if all subscribers stopped their subscription, the media houses will still keep telecommunication agencies in business.

Majority of Ghanaians have become multiple subscribers due to appalling services from communication service providers. The airwaves are perpetually jammed, creating inconvenience for subscribers. Seven years ago, I labelled MTN MUN – most useless network – and switched to Tigo. At the time, I would not receive phone calls for three days, colleagues, students, family would accuse me of turning off my phone, though as a rule, I do not. When I had enough of MTN’s bogus service, I switched.

When I switched, Tigo was a communication service provider – clear lines, fair charges, smooth traffic. Currently, I am looking for an apt label for the provider, because it has almost surpassed MTN in terrible services. Currently, one of my favourite pastimes is to hold a Tigo line in one hand and call on another Tigo line, only to be told the line I am “trying to reach is either switched off  or out of coverage area”. I make calls which do not go through, yet Tigo would inform me that an amount has been deducted from my account for the duration I spoke. Now, instead of providing us with communication service, Tigo has specialised in selling phone equipment as well as insurance. The sad reality is that all the companies cheat subscribers.

Airtel has not been in business for very long, yet it has joined the bandwagon for poor service. Already, the modem I purchased from them is now a white elephant, because I cannot access the Internet with it. Once I was in their main office in Kumasi, but their Internet service was not accessible. I decided to stick with good old Vodafone simply because I need the Internet for my work. Currently, the new treat Vodafone is dishing out to subscribers is that one bundles a monthly package, but after twenty-four hours, all the data is exhausted. In November, I had to bundle a monthly package twice. I have since heard other customers lamenting about similar treatment.

I have been receiving messages from DSTV that I could pay my subscription fee through phone companies. Tigo is one of them. In September, I paid my bill through yours truly. Every now and then, DSTV interrupts my service to inform me that it did not receive my September payment. Even though Tigo’s system acknowledged the payment and sent me a transmission code, the amount was not forwarded to DSTV. Now, I have to follow up to ensure that Tigo either refunds the money to me or it forwards it to DSTV. Two media bodies strike up a deal, yet they have not designed their network to smoothen transactions, and subscribers suffer. Poor communication service provision is the order of the day in Ghana.

Amidst such woeful performance, the NMC is linking up with these telecommunication companies to check abuse on social media on election day. Jehovah save us! Ghana is in dire straits indeed. Due to cheap popularity, the media houses will not stop the political pairing. God forbids the eventuality, but even if chaos erupts, these houses will still push the political buttons in their studio, just to know who gets the most patronage. Can the intended alliance be reliable?

The biggest challenge comes from the IT systems over which the communication service providers do not have the required mastery. Dell has a remote control service which enables its technicians to handle product issues remotely. When I could not successfully install my Office 2013 on my new Dell machine, I e-mailed Support Services and an Agent responded. She switched to remote service and helped me to fix the problem. There was an incompatibility problem, and she fixed it.

I had the machine in front of me in Ghana, and she accessed it remotely from Canada. When and where necessary, she would instruct me on what to do. When I saw activity I did not understand, I would inquire, and it would be her activity. Now, if such a system told me that it would filter data from subscribers to ensure decency and political correctness before releasing it to public platforms, I would have no qualms about its competency in enforcing that. But this system of ours where DSTV and Tigo cannot ensure a smooth transfer of funds from one to the other, and where all service providers cannot even tell when a subscriber is beyond reach, how and where on earth are they going to be able to develop this sophisticated system which would enable them to filter all messages and ensure that only the ones that would not incite others to destructive acts reach public domain? 

  

I have not an aorta of trust in the communication system of this country, simply because I have been subjected to so much corporate exploitation from the agencies. The conduct of the media houses, their general insensitivity to quality programming offer me no reason to trust in their ability to safeguard the rights of citizens and nation. The NMC and NCA have been complicit in the dubiousness of communication service providers so much that they have eroded my confidence in them.

Yes, I am cynical about all the agencies I have referred to so cannot rely on them to pre-empt chaos on election day, at least, not through technology. But I trust firmly that decent Ghanaian can reach deep down within themselves and gather the strength and willpower required to resist all destructive forces and counter extreme provocation, hooliganism, and destabilising acts with self-control, civilised dialogue and disciplined interaction, because we are intelligent human beings. I firmly believe that we will be able to let our humane tendencies override our bestial inclinations and behave rationally.

In the end, it is not technology but our sense of justice, balanced perception of power and our quest for fairness that will motivate decent acts on election day. Even people who do stomach politics can reason that they need to live and breathe the free air before they can fill their stomachs.

May it happen that we use our heads, our reasoning powers on election day! Let humanity prevail.

May my prayers be answered!

Politics and the Weather

There are two things I don’t trust in this world: Politics and the weather. My good friend, Cathy Longworth, a Canadian, once asked me whether I refer to the African weather or the Canadian one. I answered: Both. In retrospect, I was probably unfair to the African weather. Cathy and I had the Saskatchewan weather in mind, but she has not experienced African – Ghanaian – weather before. I have lived in Northern Ghana where we have extreme heat and cold during respective dry and rainy seasons. In Saskatchewan, however, the extremity applies to daily situations. A beautiful sunny day in summer could turn very cold without warning and leave sun bathers shivering. If you live in that Province and love wearing cotton fabrics during summer, be careful, because you might think yourself properly attired in the morning but find that you are poorly dressed by evening time, and if you have to take the bus, you may be shivering by the time you walk into the warm comfort of your home. When it happened to me to me, Dr.  Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, a family friend who had visited our home advised me: “Always keep a light jacket in your office for flighty weather”. Yet, one can always look upon a weather experience and have a pleasant laugh.

Politics, on the other hand, can get extremely nasty, whether it is in Africa or North. America. If I had any doubt about the general nastiness of politics, it disappeared during the contest between Mrs. Hilary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump. It amused me when an American commented on BBC Radio, before the third debate, that “the mudslinging was over; they should talk about polices and real issues”. They never really did. It hit me that the Ghanaian politician had not monopolised chicanery. The accusations and counter-accusations that have been bandied between the two contestants really highlighted the perverse nature of politics.

The refreshing aspect about American politics is that literate electorate vote on the basis of strong or good policies rather than ape for daily bread. The damaging effect of Mrs. Clinton’s e-mail issues, according to opinion pools, and the reverse situation upon the announcement by FBI that there was no criminal conduct gave strong proof that the American electorate makes intelligent choices in selecting leadership. I can live with that type of sophisticated group. Those I detest are the ones who sacrifice all human interests for repulsive self-gains. No one community has monopolised sycophancy, but some practice it with some sense. The American system puts some measures down to check sycophancy a bit, so that it does not completely destroy its political processes. In spite of all their faults, American do not worship their political leaders, so they check them: Think of the late President Nixon. Think of former President Clinton. 

Ooh, that I could say the same about the Ghanaian electorate! It is during election time that one really gets proof that ours is an illiterate society, perverse too. Politicians can present bizarre policies that have no chances of seeing daylight, yet Ghanaians would champion such issues. The pragmatic ones they will ignore or trivialise. Shamefully, serious questioning does not feature in Ghanaian politics. Now, it’s not even policy; get a brass band, play music and politicians draw huge crowds. They’ll parade the streets and receive something for the pocket, I have been told. The electorate is satisfied with the pittance they receive from politicians, during campaigning times only. Instead of insisting that the elected use tax money for community and national development, they extort money from politicians in exchange for votes. The youth is a prime culprit, but they take their cue from others in the state.

The average Ghanaian journalist would not help to discuss issues that are presented to the electorate. Their studios are regularly filled with party people who either are for the government or belong to the opposition, and they argue strictly on those lines, regardless of topics under discussion. Sycophancy at its ultimate! Indeed, politics in this country is sickening! Politicians can lie and get away with it, because journalists will not investigate pressing national issues and report to the electorate. The latter will not question behaviour or leadership. The few press folks that prioritize investigative journalism tend to be marginalised or become pariah. In such an environment, delinquent leadership thrives and humanity dignity vaporizes.

Yes, politics and weather I do not trust, because they can always pull a fast one on residents. Fortunately, one can take some precaution and protect oneself against both. Only the inexperienced and the poorly-discerned will make themselves continuous victims of the two elements. The resistant are the dignified ones. So as disenchanted as I am with politics, I can appreciate a system that makes effort to govern itself with appreciable sense of pragmatism.

The world expects Americans to be pragmatic and elect a candidate who offers appreciable equilibrium, not only to America, but to a turbulent interconnected world. Equilibrium! Is that a relative or an absolute reality or a utopia, especially from a state that has vested interests only? My interest is that Americans are not using their stomachs, but their brains, to elect. That gives them dignity on whatever scale they err in their choice of a leader today.

Dinah Amankwah
Lecturer, Communication Skills
Takoradi Polytechnic
Takoradi

My Saga with Vodafone

For a communication service provider, Vodafone can be so uncommunicative that it gets really nauseating to have to be a subscriber. It brags about giving power to the subscriber, yet it only makes the latter helpless, and frustrated. Instead of service, we get broad day-light robbery. It has just taken me three days to re-bundle my Vodafone X package, because the same system that informs me that I have exhausted my data and should top does not automatically reactivate the account when I top the data. Vodafone operates a very selective automatic system that allows it to rob subscribers

Woe betides a subscriber if for an emergency s/he decides to access the 24-hour or 48-hour service. The service is very specific yet once utilized, until one’s data is exhausted, Vodafone’s system will renew the service every morning. One agent told me that they assume the subscriber will use the service again, so they save her/him the trouble. Yet, when it comes to the monthly bundle a subscriber gets short-changed.

On the evening of September1, my Internet service was cut off since I had exhausted my data, so I topped up. The system that had cut off my Internet service would not automatically reactivate my account. Five months ago, when I had assumed that the system automatically renewed itself, it used my bundled data in less than twenty-four hours. When I inquired from the helpline, I was told that since it wasn’t my expiry date, the system could not reactivate, so it used my data ordinarily. About two months ago, I called the helpline for activation, immediately I topped up, but I was told that I did not have enough data. When I insisted that I had just topped up, the agent informed me that I should have turned off my data connection, but since I didn’t, the system automatically began using the data, therefore, I had to buy extra data in order to renew my account. With that experience in mind, I turned off the data connection on September 1 before I attempted the reactivation.  It is a good thing I did that, otherwise, I would have paid two- or three-fold or more for the bundle.

Vodafone has added a new stripe of annoyance through a very defective telephone help-line service. Usually Vodafone X subscribers dial *5888 to access the service. This time, however, every time I dialled that number, it would welcome me to the Vodafone service and promptly cut off. When I turned to the toll free 100 number, the recorded prompt was even more defective. Throughout September 1^st and 2^nd, the recorded message would skip mobile service, accessed from 1 on the keypad. Subsequently, the numbers mentioned did not co-ordinate with the steps I had to follow in order to reactivate my account. The nauseous part is that twice uncouth agencies on the helpline hung up on me when I tried to express my frustration at the poor service I was receiving. The second one occurred on September 2, 2016, at 2.51pm. I was dumbfounded on both occasions. And that was not the first time lopsided agencies from Vodafone had hung up on me.

What is most unfair is that each time I dialled, I was forced to listen to the strangulated voice informing me that I might experience delay, assuring me that my call was important to them. Considering the horrific nature of the service, that information is nothing but cacophony. From September 1^st to 3^rd, I had to suffer the hypocrisy, the delays, systemic errors because I needed the service, all and I didn’t even have the luxury of complaining.

At 9.45pm on September 2^nd, an agent picked my call, but he told me that he was on broadband helpline. He directed me to dial 100 and select 1 for mobile services. I responded that I had been doing that since the previous evening, but their system was not allowing me full access. I was hoping that he would link me with the mobile service, but he repeated that I had reached the wrong service, so I should try again. I thanked him and we both hung up. I am still wondering whether he is just a lazy employee or one that has not been trained by Vodafone. Elsewhere, I would have been transferred to the section.

 At 9.15am on September 3rd, I tried again. My perseverance was rewarded, because there was no skipping and one Rachel answered my call. When I summarised my dilemma, she readily reactivated the account for me. You are my Heroine, Rachel! It had taken me almost three days to reactivate an account, way to go Vodafone.

When Vodafone wants to steal my money, it operates an automatic system. However, when I stand to benefit, the monthly bundle I have subscribed to does not activate automatically.  If that is not corporate broad daylight robbery, I don’t know what else is.

Vodafone will dare not offer such lousy services in the UK or Europe, but in Ghana, it trumpets shoddy services. My voice does not go far; the National Communication’s Authority is not even aware of my existence. The Minister of Information simply talks politics. There are structures in place, but they do not work for the tax payer. Again, I howl: Who speaks for the Ordinary Ghanaian?

Converting Polytechnics to Technical Universities: Boosting or Sinking Technical/Vocational Education

The Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics and Technical Universities in Africa (CAPA) has advised African countries that if they genuinely want to develop the continent, they must prioritise technical/vocational. The Association drummed that message throughout its international Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, held from June 5-11, 2016. The theme of the Conference was timely: Strategic Involvement of TVET Institutions towards the Attainment of Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. The major objective was to explore the role of technical/vocational education in Africa in the pursuit and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as its overarching role in the actual development of the Continent.

A concurrent message to African technical institutions bordered on a reprimand: You have done enough talking; it is time for implementation, so start acting now (emphasis mine). That message was a poignant reminder that we have been stuck at the talking stage. So much time is spent re-planning/re-inventing existing ideas instead of bracing up for implementation and innovation. We develop elaborate policies and learning programmes, yet when it comes to implementation, we hmm and ahh, and scratch our heads then dream up the same ideas in new sets of package, so that we can remain at the planning stage, or we implement in bizarre manner such that we regress rather than progress. We have failed to utilise the system to produce human resources whose performance can improve self, community, industry, nation, and continent.

One keynote speaker, Mr. Manu Chandria, a renowned industrialist, stated that China has been able to create a new “united states” within thirty years. It achieved that feat through technical/vocational education. Mr. Chandria is right. China has become the hub of outsourcing for the globe. It has developed skills to produce top-notch quality goods for the West and inferior ones for Africans who do not value standards. It has something for everyone and every country. From toothpick through to furniture for parliament houses, call on China and it will deliver. Every commodity outsourced or exported from China is a testimony of the Chinese technical/vocational system. Put together the diverse good and services the world receive from that country, and one gets a picture of a solid system which empowers its citizens through skill acquisition. Of course, the citizens’ practices enrich China.

Prudently, it has developed and perfected its research enterprise, through which it not only matches services to needs but explores innovative ways to address human needs, local and international. Evidently, China’s technical/vocational system does not operate on mediocrity or superficiality. It aspires for intellectual and professional excellence and demonstrates such through practice. Chinese output sells China. They can deliver! Definitely, China develops its human potential through education.

Rightly, Mr Chandria harped on the human potential that can be developed through technical education, if the system will be genuinely improved and allowed to work. The industrialist called on African technical/vocational systems to halt the feet dragging and develop human potential through genuine investment in human capital, realistic curricula, and competent training, in order to raise Africa from its status of the least developed continent. In other words, instead of importing and buying from China, Africans should invest genuinely in education, operate current curricula and pursue actual learning. Africans should prioritise action and applied research to improve its learning systems and use such to chart national development. There are key lesson for this country.

Ghana’s decision to convert its polytechnics to technical universities has coincided with the World’s resolve to tackle sustainable development in an attempt to bring appreciable quality to human existence. The emphasis on equal and quality education is appreciated by all, since education improves the lot of a person. However, only quality education empowers beneficiaries. When institutions and nations merely pretend to educate, they produce human liabilities who greedily take from communities and nation instead of working passionately for community and national development. When educated ones are unable to apply knowledge for the concurrent benefits of self and community, they render education an eyesore, Ghana’s current situation.

A cursory look at the nation’s teeming mass of unemployed youth, skilled and unskilled on one hand, and the mediocre and under-performance in the workforce on the other hand, can convince one that education in this country has failed woefully, and as such drastic changes are needed for remedy. Technical/vocational education is in the centre of that sorry spectacle, because it trains the workforce which performs the technical, middle level and artisanal jobs across all sectors, which performance might be used to determine the quality of training imparted by the institutions, and the rate of development it can bring to the nation. As to the development engendered so far, the government, learning institutions and industry, beneficiaries, individuals and the general public can make their own judgments: mostly, educated people with hardly employable skills. Yet instead of crying over spilt milk; we desire to pursue competence, hence, the intended conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.

Target Quality Education

The reality is that a mere name change will not improve technical/vocational education in the country. The only avenue to genuine improvement is that this conversion must be development-oriented, and not from any myopic or jaundiced motivation. Quality education does not happen by itself; it is strategized and carefully executed. Quality education is not rushed or selectively implemented. It is approached holistically, and realistically, through the planning, execution, evaluation and review stages. Simply put, quality education is a painstaking effort, human-oriented. Any educational review or reform that can be rushed is superficial, not genuine, certainly not for community, national, and continental goodwill.

In other words, when continent, nation and community become the target for development, individuals therein become automatic beneficiaries, because initiatives will be community-oriented, rather than egotistical. In short, quality technical education is a strategy for sustainable employment and benefits. It empowers recipients to exploit natural resources for the benefit of society. Westerners have been practicing that for centuries. China has achieved that. Kenyans are treading that path. Such must be our goals for this conversion: No other motive is acceptable. No other motive will legitimise the existence of technical universities in the country. No other motive will yield the desirable change for the nation and continent. For a change, educational review in this country ought to be about human capital, not about politics.

In spite of the disadvantaged position of technical/vocational education, the nation has acknowledged that it anchors national development if it imparts the relevant skills to trainees. Appropriately therefore, all the polytechnics are expected to convert their regular curricula to competency-based training (CBT) for career creation, and to ensure that current and marketable training is imparted to learners. Therein lies one fundamental challenge; generally, the curriculum developers have not been trained. Curriculum is developed by well-equipped groups. We must take a cue from Kenya. It has established the TVET Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council which trains technical institutions for CBT programmes and monitors their performance. It has structured a training schedule for all technical institutions. The Chair of the Council informed me that the Council has trained seven hundred teachers and is systematically moving from one institution to another. Kenya planned very well and is executing gradually. One can see the results from local performance, industry included. Training polytechnics teachers for CBT curriculum design ought to have been Ghana’s fundamental move for one primary reason.

The polytechnic system has seen a huge explosion of human resource development in the last two decades, yet the training has been theoretically skewed. The system has failed to ensure a proper alignment of theory and practice in its classrooms. Consequently, the practical content in the various training programme has gone downhill. It continues to produce job seekers instead of job creators. Products’ skills do not match national and industrial needs.

Even industrial attachment time has reduced. In some programmes, there is zero practical training in the classroom, because teachers cannot align theory with practice. In many disciplines, the polytechnics have been offering raw training like the universities, replicating university programmes instead of developing hands-on version of such courses. These are the same teachers who are drawing the CBT curriculum, when they have not been given the necessary orientation. A cross-section of teachers has already predicted that at the end of the day, it will be the same regular curriculum labelled as CBT. That admission is a seal for further demise of technical/vocational education in Ghana.

Of course, quality education should begin from the pre-school through to the tertiary and higher institutions. Quality rests in accurate and timely content delivered at the appropriate times, by qualified personnel, and in the right amounts. The nation has failed to achieve zero literacy rate due to its inability to attain Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). The foundation level of education in this country is extremely weak; hence, it negates whatever attempts are made to improve secondary and tertiary education. Yet, instead of focusing on strengthening literacy and education at the foundation level, governments opt for the easy way out, giving free school uniforms and school sandals, vehicles and buildings, effectively diverting limited funds from where it belongs. Whilst these provisions are necessary, if they are not founded on timely, accurate knowledge, they fail to be effective.

That is the reason industries are receiving graduates who possess barely employable skills, and that cuts across polytechnics and universities. The literacy and mathematical literacy skills of secondary school graduates are barely discernible. An appreciable percentage that enters the tertiary classroom are not equipped for the academic challenges therein, hence, they cope badly. Some stakeholders have explained the situation thus: “Garbage in, garbage out”. Due to the disadvantaged position of Technical/Vocational education, the polytechnics receives the greater number of the weak products from the secondary level, who complete professional courses yet fail to acquire the necessary sophistication to create their own jobs or be attracted to diligent and proactive employers or institutions. A mere conversion will not change that. Yet, even when students lack the necessary knowledge, diligent tertiary institutions could design learning structures to make up for the knowledge gap, whilst improving the base.

Due to the knowledge handicap that results from an extremely fragile foundation of education, the learning systems are sapped of intellectual innovation necessary for addressing human needs of the state. Again, the polytechnics bear a greater percentage of the blame. Quality applied research is at its minimum; programmes have not been modelled to equip the youth with sustainable employment skills. Consequently, the conversion can occur, but the institutions will not function like technical universities such as Dresden, which characteristically engage in high-powered level research, pursue intellectual excellence, or explore natural resources to better human existence. And therein lies another fundamental challenge for this conversion: The polytechnics are not equipped, at the human and infrastructural levels for technical university work, and until these fundamental challenges are addressed, the conversion remains in name only.

Aiming for Competence

The CBT curriculum is pivotal in this conversion; in five years, graduate competence would be the determinant of the success or failure of technical universities in the country, per the employability or otherwise of the products. Some engineering programmes were converted a few years ago. Occasionally, one or two from the existing CBT programmes are consulted at the discretion of the schools within polytechnics. Technically, the teachers currently developing the curricula have not been trained for that technical role, yet they are engaged in the most fundamental aspect of the teaching/learning system. For majority of the programmes, it is a struggle which might not just yield the desirable objective.

Considering that products of the current CBT programmes have not been tracked on the job market to determine their overall effectiveness in the industry, using CBT trainees to train other teachers is neither an academic nor an astute move. Besides, each discipline must have its own CBT approach. A serious move would have been to track beneficiaries of the CBT programmes, using industrial parameters, review their performance in order to better classroom practices. The improved curriculum would then become a model after which various curricula could be fashioned for other disciplines. Such an approach would render the review learner-driven, not teacher-driven. Such an approach would signal that the nation desires to train its youth for dignified employment. Such a meticulous approach would actualise improvement of polytechnic education. In absence of that, departments are designing curricula in order to give teachers classroom contact hours.

Polytechnics have been scurrying for teacher upgrade in recent times, but that upgrade has seen a quantum upsurge since the quest for technical universities set in. Yet the harsh reality that human resource development has not necessarily translated into quality training, theoretically or in practice, is another fundamental challenge for the system and Nation. The system embarked on teacher upgrading without charting a path for that upgrade. Training ought to have been focused on improving hands-on training. Emphasis ought to have been on performance in practical training, not on mere certification. Currently, a cross-section of polytechnic teachers does not understand the practical reality of the polytechnic classroom.

Communities elsewhere that have succeeded in transforming technical/vocational education, and higher learning in general, prioritise programmes that meet community, industrial and learner demands. On the contrary, Ghana does not invest what it ought to in order to design quality needs-based curricula. Over the years, governments have deliberately selected provisions that fail to strengthen vocational/technical education. Cutting corners in the past several decades has boomerang now and culminated in a failed educational system which is now successfully producing half-baked graduates and a mounting teeming mass of unemployable youth.

The unemployment situation currently facing the nation is not solely because government fails to create employment. Ironically, the high unemployment rate runs concurrently with employment mismatch. There are jobs for which there are no skills. That situation cannot be blamed on government alone; learning institutions are partly to blame. As a nation, we have marginalised research. We have failed to use education and research to address community and national needs. We have failed to utilise action research to sharpen teaching/learning and evaluation for human and community development.

Subsequently, we have not managed to master investigative approaches through applied research, which approaches could have guided us to hone skills across community and industrial levels. We have been satisfied with merely churning out graduates, applauding ourselves for numbers instead of tracking quality output among graduates. We have reduced educational standards so much that we are currently, mostly, producing educated illiterates across all learning levels. The resultant insidious national plague is producing, in numbers, intellectuals who can barely put thought together or perform. The contemporary global employer seeks competence, not certificates.

If technical/vocational education had been guided by applied and scientific research in the past, it could have discovered solution or effective approaches to socio-cultural and economic challenges such as safe waste management, to name one. Such knowledge could now be used to further refine knowledge and practices, even among the unskilled. Then beneficiaries would be empowered to create jobs. One educationist has lamented that polytechnic students currently complete autonomous courses in entrepreneurship and seek government employment. On the whole, the system has failed to fulfil its mandate of imparting hands-on-training to learners. Beneficiaries trust paper qualification for progress rather than hands-on expertise, because the workforce, largely, promotes by certificate, not by practice. That is one of the reasons the system has failed to produce competent personnel.

Target Technical/Vocational Education

So far, the reasons advanced for technical university have largely bordered on the superficiality rather than academic. Whilst universities are apprehensive that the polytechnics do not qualify for university status, the polytechnic fraternity is happy because it will enjoy a university status. Polytechnic students are happy that they will be university graduates. The core issues, however, ought to be academic and realistic investment in the system, and until those are genuinely attended to, the system will not improve. The United Kingdom currently spends about £4,000 on a technical/vocational student. How does that compare with Ghanaian funding for such students? The Committee that recommended timelines commented on the huge disparity in funding between Ghana and the German institutions they visited. It rightly suggested a gradual approach, but it should not have recommended its commencement in September 2016, considering the diverse academic challenges facing the system. The approach adopted for this conversion indicates that we are neither learning from the past nor targeting human capital.

Polytechnic staff can pile up all the degrees under the sun. Workshops and laboratories and classrooms can be furnished with the state of the art tools and equipment. Programmes can be re-packaged in the most appealing forms. If the teaching and the taught are not oriented for practical training, all the other resources will not yield skilled products. Teachers must be submerged in the CBT concept, regardless of their disciplines of expertise. They must have absolute control over the alignment of theory and practice in their subject areas. Only such enlightened teachers can motivate learners to appreciate the career and academic paths offered by the polytechnics.

Currently, the average secondary school graduate does not regard the polytechnic as a legitimate path for academic and professional progression. New Zealand can assert that 44 % of its annual 65,000 secondary school graduates opt for polytechnics or trades training, whilst 38 % enrol in the universities. The reverse happens in Ghana. Averagely, secondary school graduates target the university; the polytechnic is a second best. In 2013, two streams of secondary school graduates were admitted into tertiary institutions in the country. Whilst the universities were brimming with applications, the polytechnics bled, because the Ministry of Education insisted on a minimum entry requirement of C6 in core subjects.

The polytechnics had to negotiate a deal for conditional admission before they could fill their classrooms. Admission requirements had to be lowered for entrants, and that situation has since prevailed. Consequently, polytechnic classrooms are populated by a high percentage of students whose literacy and mathematical literacy skills are extremely weak, making tertiary work impossible. How can the polytechnic be attractive to the youth when they witness that lower academic performers are admitted into the system? Most importantly, how can such poor performers engage in the high-powered level research for innovation that has characterised contemporary technical universities in other communities?

A cross-section of the polytechnic system has managed to convince itself that technical/vocational learners do not need strong skills in English language in order to enter polytechnic classrooms because they are going to pursue vocation, not grammar. A fallacy. In 2011, the United Kingdom extensively reviewed its technical/vocational educational system. It made strong language skills a linchpin. Learners need to obtain grade A-C to qualify for enrolment. Students who perform poorly are expected to concentrate on developing their language skills. The rationale is simple: Students must be well-equipped for the academic challenges of the tertiary classroom. A strong grasp of the core subjects provides an appreciable foundation for tertiary work, which foundation makes students motivated learners. In view of that, New Zealand has actually upped its literacy requirement for the tertiary classroom, but Ghana compromises its literacy requirements for numbers due to poor funding. The compromise is breeding in the polytechnic classroom elements who can barely read or write. Such elements are not motivated learners; learning is a chore. One cannot establish a technical university system on such a porous human foundation.

Commitment is also lacking from other stakeholders which is the reason the system has failed to live up to expectation, and will continue as such in spite of any label change, if issues are not legitimately addressed. Let us begin with an honest tracer studies in industry in order to determine what has worked or failed, what industry requires and what they can do to help. Based on such assessment, government will know the right type of investment and the appropriate breakdown. Administrative machineries in the polytechnic will be able to align theory and practice in human resource placement, aided by a Competency-Based Training schedule. The systems will design a variety of programmes, tertiary and non-tertiary, so that the right academic elements can be placed in the appropriate academic programmes, with the necessary flexible timelines. Industry must also demonstrate strong commitment and offer necessary internship to learners. The polytechnics must be obliged to own the changes. If such a system could be upheld, it would attract focused learners, not the failed. Only then would beneficiaries be sustainable job creators.

A motivated and committed team of teachers and learners would pursue mastery of skills, which could lead to excellence in performance across all sectors. Such excellence would endow performers with secured employable skills, per SDG objectives. In such an enabling environment, the trapped would be wrenched from the claws of abject poverty. The nation would tread the path of genuine development, the essence of technical/vocational education. Mediocrity and non-performance have no place in technical universities. The crucial need for strategic planning and implementation for this conversion cannot be over-emphasised.

So far, we have been hurdling toward this conversion rather than run a marathon in order to address entrenched fundamental challenges of the polytechnic system. No name-change will transform the system. The President of Ghana has rightly commented that the nation needs to move away from the hitherto grammar education and engage in competency-based education. Again, that move requires genuine strategy and the willpower for implementation. I hope he cushions that move with the needed investment. The system must aspire for excellence and international standards.

Appreciable structures are already in place; the challenge is making them work for the system. Instead of aspiring for excellence, the system has chosen to be satisfied with mediocrity. It has leaned toward superficiality rather than genuine academic and professional excellence. Mastery of skills has not been prioritised. Applied and action research which could help to evaluate and improve upon academic work have been, largely, neglected. Academic and professional guidance and counselling do not receive the necessary attention. Worst of all, monitoring for teaching and evaluation is executed haphazardly, all of which situations have compromised quality teaching/learning and evaluation. Unscrupulous teachers manipulate the system for purely selfish reasons and go scot-free. Consequently, an appreciable cross-section of polytechnic products possesses certificates they cannot defend. Already, a section of industry does not trust polytechnic 1^st class certificates.

The youth should be the target of this review; we should strive to endow them with sustainable marketable skills, not certify them for professional indignity. Polytechnics should target programmes that can attract the youth. Instead of competing with the universities over programmes, it must package practical courses that would set them apart as alternative legitimate paths for learning and practice. Polytechnic programmes should not be designed so that teachers can have jobs; rather they should be packaged for sustained employment benefits of trainees. Motivated human resources can utilise all other resources effectively, whereas poor human resources would underutilise the best of teaching/learning resources. If the legitimate issues raised here were addressed first, it would automatically transform the polytechnic system, and render the transition to technical university a very smooth activity.

Again, technical/vocational education is not for non-performers; it is not for apathetic learners. It definitely is not for shoddy teachers. Technical/vocational training is meant for intelligent ones who desire to earn quality existence through genuine practice. Such ones practice excellence, not mediocrity. Technical/vocational education is the lifeline of communities and nations, because it trains technicians and artisans who perform core services, in domestic, public/commercial services. Since all in the communities solicit such services, a substandard technical/vocational learning system endangers the entire community.

The poor services we are all encountering across the country provide the sharpest statement that technical/vocational system has failed. That reality should motivate us to strengthen the system. All ego should be pocketed. Stakeholders must focus on quality services, returns for national training and investment — dignified employment for people, the youth especially, sustainable employment and (extreme) poverty eradication, sustained GDP growth, to mention these genuine reasons for action. If we had such an agenda, this conversion would not be rushed. Yes, it was a campaign manifesto, but practical governments know that when campaign manifestoes cannot be realistically implemented, it benefits society to stall such promises. Parliament itself acknowledges the challenges; therefore, the focus should be on addressing the fundamental challenges not rush a change which makes even major stakeholders extremely apprehensive.

If we rush this change in September, we would be making a purely hollow move, which would further sink, not boost technical/vocational education in the country.