Freedom of education in Ghana

The educational philosophy behind the autonomy of any university in the world is to liberate the institutions from political interference and enable the university faculty to provide students with the ability to critically examine complex issues and trends that may be impacting on national development. 

The current developments at the University of Education, Winneba negates this goal and the consequences will have an international dimension; the status of the universities in Ghana are likely to be downgraded in the world.

In the past, our universities experienced difficulty in enhancing quality and monitoring because of political interference. Some faculty members left the universities, students gave preference to foreign education, and many parents debated the essence of university education and whether it was worth the investment.

That was many years ago, right? But the past appears to be creeping in on us again.

Between December 9, 2016 and January 7, 2017, the following events took place:

(A) The Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency, Mr Alexander Afenyo Markin, in his own capacity wrote to the University of Education, Winneba requesting for a meeting with the council and management he described as defunct. This is patriarchal and it happens in societies believed to lack cultural, technological and economical sophistication.

Our institutions in Ghana are much stronger, I believe, for an MP or any one person to attempt to upset them. Or, I could probably be wrong that Ghana is a growing democracy and with much better sophisticated institutions. Does he have that capacity?

In his letter, he said he was acting on behalf of the President-elect.

(B)A second letter was sent on January 7, 2017 (that is a day before the President was sworn into office) by Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a representative of the President and Co-Chair, 2016 Transition Team.

In that letter, he confirmed the MP for Effutu as a Leader of the President’s Transition Team Responsible for Transition Activities in the University of Education, Winneba (UEW).

Begging for answers

(i) Was the UEW in any transition?

(ii) Were all public universities also in transition? (iii)Were coordinators elected by the President to all the public universities?

(iv) Are the assets of public universities like UEW subject to the government’s transition activities under Executive Assets for the simple reason that there is a change in government?

(v) Why has UEW only been targeted when other public universities also had councils whose tenure had expired?

Issues at court /overview

The Principal Officers of the University are the Vice Chancellor (VC); Pro vice Chancellor; Registrar; Finance Officer and the Librarian.

(1) The VC per statute is appointed by a search party constituted by the council to be approved and sworn in by the council chairperson.

(2) The Pro-Vice is elected and appointed by the same council;

(3) So are other council members.

If the terms of officers of the council have expired then almost everything done by the defunct council should be declared null and void and of no legal effect:

They sought an injunction to be placed on some principal officers who were appointed by the defunct council.

Questions

Questions remaining include

(A) If all appointments made by the defunct council are illegitimate why is the

Pro-Vice made to take over since it was the same council that appointed him.

(B) Choosing the Vice Chancellor and the Finance Officer for attack smacks of witch-hunting because of their place of origin.

(C) The contract alluded to in the injunction was awarded in 2013. It is interesting to know that the current Vice Chancellor was appointed in 2015; how then can he be responsible for a contract in 2013?

What then is the justification for asking these officers to step aside?

For those who want to avoid the critical analysis, they would advance the matter as before a court of jurisdiction. I will grant them the excuse but that again is a band-aid approach to problem-solving issues of national interest.

The institutions of state will weaken if the government acquiesces to the interest of an individual, who, probably, for some obscure purpose, understood that the institutions of the new government were probably weak and he could manipulate the government machinery to his advantage without assessing the impact his manipulation would have on future generations.

And, if there was substance in the case why should the new council ask for out-of-court settlement if fraud is alleged? Can fraud be settled out of court? 

Probably yes! In primitive societies fraud was settled in a very unorthodox way because there were probably no institutions to do proper investigations.    The over-arching goal for Ghana and government officials is to work with citizens to strengthen the institutions of State.

The Thomas Jefferson democracy, which we signed onto in 1992, could only thrive where state institutions were strong and independent and were able to function without fear or favour to anyone individual, persons, or group of persons.

The writer is a lecturer at the University of Utah, Salt lake City, USA