Technical University in Ghana: The Impediments

 “For far too long vocational learning has been seen as the poor relation of academic learning”. John Hayes, MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, UK.

One of the reasons this nation is experiencing stagnant growth across sectors is that it has consistently failed to utilise education to address its needs. Decades of compromising educational standards have yielded a horrible reality of generations whose porous skills effectively bar them from securing jobs. The number of unemployed graduates was expected to hit 271,000 in September 2015, though it might have reduced bynow. Governments may not have created adequate jobs over the years, and nations across the globe may be experiencing employment mismatch, but it is equally undeniable that educational institutions have also failed to produce the type of human resources needed by industry, and Ghanaian learning institutions are major culprits. This article focuses on polytechnics and technical universities in the country.

The irony of employment mismatch is that whilst energetic youth are unoccupied, employers have positions that cannot be filled. When learning institutions pretend to impart knowledge or run moribund curricula, they produce graduates whose skills are dated. One graduate who completed a programme in Textiles Technology in one Ghanaian polytechnic is currently with GTP. When I inquired about the relevance of the programme to the work on the field, the reply was numbing: “It is like one and two.What we were taught in the programme is completely different from what pertains in industry, but I’m happytohave this opportunity to learn”. Then there was an appeal: “Please speak to the school authority to get things changed”.

Not every graduate will share this negative experience; yet the fact remains that industry keeps complaining about the poor skills graduates bring to the job. Whilst some programmes may be dated, some courses have appreciable currency, but they are handled so poorly by faculty that students barely gain from the courses. Paradoxically, the graduate quoted above pursued a programme in textiles technology, which presupposes that the programme would reflect current learning and manufacturing trend. Academic Departments that claim to be running technology courses have a responsibility to refine programmes to match technological trends. Due to the rapid evolution of technology, if Technical/Vocational programmes do not match industrial trends, graduates lose, and so do communities and nations. Ghana is experiencing that.

The success of the polytechnic concept rests on the currency of hands-on curricula; innovative teachers also bring current trends to their teaching, so even when curricula review or change is delayed, learners do not lose. Teacher innovation stems from quality action and applied research, which shed light on teaching, industrial, environmental, socio-cultural and entrepreneurial dynamics, to mention these. When institutions, teachers and the taught are aware of these forces at work, they can embark on skill acquisition paths that simultaneously fulfil personal, community, national and global aspirations. Products of such learning environment neither wallow in the house nor offer mediocre services; they excel at assigned tasks and bring innovation to the job and community.Industry desires such smart graduates. Technical universities in the country must aspire to that.

The Nation was not able fulfil the polytechnic concept before it prematurely hurdled to the technical university arena. In November 2017, I asked 19 first year students to comment on the statement, “[t]he Technical University Concept in Ghana is a misnomer”. They acknowledged in their writing that the concept is not being practiced; many others share that sentiment. That acknowledgement highlights a conundrum: Institutions are designated technical universities, but their activities belie their label. The fundamental reasons for that contradiction are academic.

This is the era of knowledge economy, operational through the Theory of Mind – the human capacity to understand issues affecting self and others, accepting and respecting differences.The application of acquired knowledge has yielded abundant information on diverse issues, some previously undreamt of; communication technology is at a peak due to the availability of dynamic information. Excellent reading, comprehension and analytical skills are crucial in accessing available information for knowledge. However, our basic education has become so porous that products have severe reading and comprehension challenges. Due to poor monitoring and institutional compromises, even struggling pupils are pushed through to the secondary schools. Over there, due to staggering numbers and fixation on extra-classes, students do not receive much help. The compromises continue up to the tertiary level where majority and the promising opt for traditional universities, leaving the polytechnics to absorb the extremely weak ones. Technical university status has not changed that anomaly.

The telling effects of the porous work being done at the primary and secondary levels are felt most acutely in the polytechnic and technical university classrooms. When students have stark reading and comprehension challenges, operating the knowledge economy is such a chore, because learners barely understand the forces that motivate humans to tackle issues of education, communication, globalization, quality and standards, gender inequality, extreme poverty, sanitation and hygiene, safe waste management, health, free trade, migration, maternal/infant mortality, population explosion, peace and security, religious fanaticism, terrorism, unemployment, youth empowerment, corruption, political delinquency, job security, tolerance, information technology, social media, fake news, deforestation, child molestation, natural disasters, climate change, to mention these, at local and international levels. When learners lack appreciation for issues impacting their daily existence, the probability that they will be critical thinkers and assume conscientious attitude tends to be low, sometimes impossible. That is the bane of Ghana, but polytechnics and technical universities get saddled with majority of such poor human elements.

Technical universities evolve from technical institutions which rigorously pursue academic excellence; they are not created by political appendage, as was done in Ghana. Logically, therefore, they pursue high-powered, innovative and applied research, engendered by super reading, comprehension and analytical skills. Teachers and learners appreciate the issues that affect humanity and not only address such through innovative research but also apply knowledge to improve human existence. We are all beneficiaries of such research. On the contrary, the products admitted into Ghana’s technical university classrooms are not equipped for such quality academic research; a lot of the teachers equate research with promotion. Most students are incapable of close reading which can help them to grasp the underlying principles of their chosen fields and strive for innovation. Logic and reasoning are endangered species in such spaces. At best, students observe and replicate existing works; but superficial knowledge cannot yield the type of intellectual excellence which characterizes technical university work, and which pushes communities and nations forward. Yet, the learners are not just lazy or dumb; primary and secondary education failed to endow most with the fundamental skills for advanced studies, for university work.

The real offence lies in the inability of the universities to appreciably fill the huge gaps of knowledge created by porous educational foundation. Students with weak skills are shoved into advanced programmes when they should be taken through immersion courses in literacy, numeracy and communication, which can help and prepare them for diploma/certificate or professional programmes. The worst academic move made by the polytechnics in the past was to marginalize diploma programmes for the Higher National Diploma programmes. The consequence is that students who have no basics from the secondary school are plunged into advanced professional programmes, some of which are handled quite superficially. Logically, many complete with porous skills, compounded by appalling communication skills. Some are maintained by the institutions, therefore, the knowledge they impart is somewhat deficient. Many others have become the foundation for technical university. It is a vicious cycle.

What is worse, hands-on training has been slipping for years, whereas technology necessitates practice. A cross-section of polytechnic and technical university teachers are myopic and limit their students to information teachers have produced in hand-outs or books instead of exposing students to diverse academic research material which can stimulate intellectual development. Students pass the courses of such teachers if they purchase such nauseous materials. Even introductory ICT is taught in that skewed manner, so how would learners grasp the basics of information technology in order to utilise such for innovation in their professional courses? In the end, secondary students who are ill-prepared for the tertiary classroom are further limited by unethical teaching practices. Instead of intellectual, socio-cultural and entrepreneurial development, learners are infantilised and packaged off to industry, ill-prepared for the competitive workforce.

The systems have continued to lack the flexibility which hallmarks Technical/Vocational systems elsewhere. The polytechnic concept, among others, offers a legitimate option to learners who do not want to study for a lengthy period, who want to combine studies with work. Such categories desire to intersperse studies with learning over a stretched period or take a terminal course for life-long skills. Proactive institutions have designed professional programmes that accommodate different categories of learners, even those with learning challenges. Not every learner desires a higher diploma or degree studies. It is crucial that the system is redesigned to attract diverse categories of learners, with a special focus on the teeming hawking youth/unemployed in disguise. Of course, accommodation does not imply compromising standards, so whether learners enrol in full-time or part-time programmes, diploma or certificate courses, they must possess literacy and numeracy skills, which equip learners for competent professional training and practice.

Sadly, Ghanaian polytechnics have consistently compromised admission standards; those converted to tertiary universities have maintained the status quo. The calibre of students admitted determines the level of intellectual work done in the classrooms; majority have a lackadaisical attitude towards academic work. A cross-section of teachers is equally apathetic about teaching. When Technical/Vocational students lack the desire to study, and teachers are dispassionate about practical teaching, government facesa diabolical combination for a national disaster, and that aptly summarises Ghana’s situation. A technical university concept is inoperable in such an environment.

The Minister quoted above has also asserted that in spite of “many calls over the years for greater parity of esteem between academic and vocation qualifications, in practice this has meant making what is practical more academic, to the detriment of both”. Ghana’s situation is worse due to deteriorating educational standards, poor monitoring, pathetic investment and poor appreciation for technical education, to name four. Another difference is that the UK consistently refines its system. In 2009, the Secretary of State for Education commissioned an educationist to evaluate the vocational system and recommend effective measures for improvement. The outcomes can be found in the Wolf Reports available on-line. Most importantly, Government has been implementing the recommendations.

It is not enough to acknowledge that Technical/Vocational education is crucial for national development. The system has been ailing for decades and requires radical attention. Unless the porous structures are rigorously rectified, any funds sunk into the system will, at best, replicate defective training systems. In principle, Ghana has an empowering Technical/Vocational framework, but the implementation is flawed, and to a very large extent, leading agencies have lost focus of the human-centred natureof the system. That goal can be recaptured, because sankofa,wonkyi, which literally translates, it is not a taboo to go back for what one has forgotten. If for nothing at all, the young blood fleeing the country for slavery, torture and horrible death on deserts, in Libya and Europe should make us retrace our steps, restructure the Technical/Vocational system, targeting skills, job security and dignified existence.