Ghana needs to overhaul its higher education to promote economic growth - Prof Hammond
The Executive Chairman of Dominion University, Professor Felix Nikoi Hammond, has called for an overhaul of university education in Ghana.
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He underscored the need for those in charge of the sector to adopt a new approach that will help solve the country`s socioeconomic challenges.
He said Ghana’s current university education does not encourage self-employment or individual innovations, and that most of the courses are centred on white-colour jobs and not entrepreneurship.
This, he noted, was the reason for the high unemployment rate among university graduates in the country.
Prof Hammond made the call at the launch of the TEASE Evolution, an initiative by the University to academically empower its students to be problem solvers during and after completion of school, held last Friday, May 10, 2024, in Accra.
“It is very sad for us to have the association of unemployed graduates in an economy. That is an indictment but we should do something about it. The way to do it is not just to issue certificates, but make sure that you build in them skills so that when they step out, they know what they are doing”, he lamented.
The educationist explained that the current university education system in Ghana operates on two approaches, where some are doing the same and just a few are differentiating themselves through nurturing young people with the requisite skills that are needed in the current economy.
He said those running the normal teaching and learning programmes are producing graduates who lack the skills to take up challenges in the economy.
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For him, a thriving education system had to deliver four main functions, namely economic development, social development, cultural development, and personal growth.
“It is very easy for everyone to say we are raising leaders; it is also easy for us to say there’s shortage. There is a mismatch between what the universities are producing and what the market is looking for; it’s all about the systems that we are using,” Prof. Hammond.
TEASE evolution
The TEASE initiative seeks to inculcate in students values that will help them build a future in the area of trustworthiness, experience, authority, success, and expertise (TEASE).
Touching on the initiative, Professor Hammond said all that the country needs is the production of graduates who will be trustworthy in society and are ready to take up challenging positions.
“Dominion for a long time was doing what other universities where doing, but we realised that it not producing and giving the effect that it has to be. We have taken two years to study and to understand were we need to pitch our camp, what element will make the difference”. he explained.