Solutions-oriented university education - Open recommendations for fresh students

One of my duties — serving as chairman of the board of governors of the Tema International School (TIS) — is to give the charge for the young International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates as they embarked on the bold adventure of entering various colleges and universities here or abroad.

For such ceremonies, I tend to look within for trends or seek mentors for inspiring messages.

For this year’s – June 3, 2023 — I chose a lead from J.E. Kwegyir Aggrey.

In the 1920s, (possibly preparing for the building of Achimota school in the company of the Gold Coast Governor Gordon Guggisberg and principal-to-be Alec Fraser) Aggrey saw the need to address the elite of his day. He cautioned, “Don’t tell me what you know; show me what you can do”.

That admonition was important then and more so today in the context of finding solutions to the myriad problems facing Ghana.

It stands to reason that any bold action to solve a defined problem is weightier than the aggregate of superb lectures, speeches and religious sermons.

Talk is cheap, as they say.

For instance, a good many politicians and their henchmen, particularly tend to wax brightly with promises, out-shouting each other — on radio and television – about what the nation’s problems were.

But put them in office and suddenly they fell short with little clue as to how to solve problems they themselves seemed to have identified in campaign speeches and political manifestoes.

And the question is this: Do our schools and universities, for example teach or encourage students to be problem solvers?

That matter resonated in my mind, considering that my responsibility to the graduates was to alert them and then help them prepare the appropriate mindset for the educational adventures ahead.

Why is it that it is mostly after completing four solid years of university education that university graduates are told to go out and become problem solvers?

What was happening in-between and before that closing moment?

It is plain and simple that – for the most part — doses of lectures do not problem solvers make!

My charge for this year’s graduates ran as follows (edited slightly):

‘Charge’

Ayekoo.

It wasn’t easy to arrive at this great milestone.

But you made it.

Go ahead and clap for yourselves.

To begin with, you have earned your diplomas and of course, they’d open doors for you.

So will the degrees from the colleges and universities you’ve chosen to attend.

But for you to have greater impact and have much bigger doors open for you, consider this:

There was a time when certificates, diplomas and various degrees were the very key considerations.

Don’t get me wrong at all: those achievements are still very important.

But times are changing fast.

Whoever thought that one day Artificial Intelligence could write various essays for you!

As I travel around  – I realise that new kinds of demands are needed profoundly today.

This new age requires innovations and solutions.

Not only paper qualifications. [Repeat]

By Innovation I mean something new that has never been thought of or done before.

And that takes vision and creativity: the sort of things that don’t just happen by themselves in classrooms and lecture halls.

You can earn degrees in Business Principles, Mathematical Computations, Language Skills, Social Sciences, Computer Sciences, etc.

These are all merely the means to an end.

But the absolute end is what I’d like you to consider.

For example: What are the innovative solutions for the following:

“Environmental destruction; dirty beaches; lack of quality education for the poor; unaffordable housing for low-income groups; unhealthy imported foods; unreliable power supply; lack of rapid medical attention; problems of sanitation and plastic wastes; lack of mass transportation; mass unemployment; migration from rural to urban areas; and so on.

These are only a few basic examples: All I’m saying is that keep your ears, eyes, and minds wide open.

The solutions to these problems may serve as your mission for life and that is to scale innovative solutions all over the world, if possible.

Remember that the entrepreneurs making waves and big money are not theorists.

They are doers: They think big thoughts and surround themselves with people they can collaborate with to make great things happen.

You already have the discipline and the basic computation skills.

You can read; you can write.

You can begin a life’s mission with the innovative solutions to solve today’s problems; so think about them. (End)

Solutions seekers

Giving people the right to see things for themselves – to imagine the appropriate courses for action - is better than consistently relying on information processed for them through an avalanche of lectures and examinations.

Solutions-oriented deliverables are the important things.

It starts with the question: What particular problem do you see around you and how do you plan to go about solving it?

Great things happen when young people are given the chance to identify the problems around them and to imagine innovative solutions.

Where students and educators explore such ideas with consistency, their energies are sustained by eagerness, including those with instincts for entrepreneurship.

Inspiration sags when there’s nothing worthwhile to embark upon.

It peaks when one is flushed with feelings of confidence that a deliverable is not only desirable but attainable.

And then, of course, that’s how the great movers, shakers and entrepreneurs are made. 

The writer is a trainer of teachers, leadership coach, motivational speaker and quality education advocate.

E-mail: anishaffar@gmail.com