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Progressive Education for a Superior Workforce: The transition from theories to hands-on abilities

In opening the 2014 International Youth Day Celebration (12 August 2014, at the Accra International Conference Centre) Ras Mubarak, the acting Coordinator of the National Youth Authority, greeted the audience with the following joke:

Some professors were seated in an airplane ready for takeoff. As the captain announced that the aircraft was built by their own students, all the professors ran out except for one who remained confidently in his seat. When asked why he remained sitting, the professor said, “Trust me; if this plane was truly made by our students, it won’t even start.” 

When you hear a crack like that one, you’re at a loss as to whether to laugh or cry because the symbolism is depressing. To spend huge sums of good money, in the nation’s budget – every year – and still not be able to produce a competent workforce is most disturbing. But that particular problem was mooted over a hundred years ago, and the dysfunction seemed to have lived with us till now; except that for today – with all the exposure, dynamic trends, and available technology – passivity and its twin accomplice, incompetence, must not be accepted at all!

In the time of John Mensah Sarbah (1864 – 1910), the competitive standards he foresaw for the Gold Coast were not even from China, or South Korea, or Singapore, or Taiwan or Malaysia – the so-called Asian tigers. Those nations, at the time, were no forces to contend with, and some did not even exist in the form we see them today. Quite a young man in his mere thirties, and way ahead of his time, Mensah Sarbah said the following in 1902:

“Fanti patriots and the Japanese Emperor with his statesmen were both striving to raise up their respective countries by the proper education and efficient training of their people. The same laudable object was before them both … Japan [has] succeeded, and her very success ought to be an inspiration as well as an incentive to the people of the Gold Coast Territories to attempt again, keep on striving until they win in the Twentieth Century that which was sought for thirty-five years ago.”

Likewise, in talking about the 3 Hs for relevant education (Head, Heart, and Hands), a key founder of one of Ghana’s premier schools, Achimota, J.E. Kwegyir Aggrey (1875 – 1927), cautioned, “Don’t tell me what you know; show me what you can do”. Today, to say that we still have a crisis of passivity in our heads, hearts, and hands is an understatement.

The Irish born writer, C.S. Lewis ((1898 – 1963) must have been speaking about that very passivity that breeds poverty and disease when he said, “We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." 

Recent Statements - from a CEO breakfast meeting organized by Ghana Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (GHANECC), and Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra (22 May 2014) - are eye openers to alleviate incompetence. 

In promoting business between Ghana and the Netherlands, the theme for the meeting was this: “Does the Ghanaian education system provide us with the workforce we need?” It was an honour for me to have been invited to the inaugural “Think Business Ghana” meeting as the key speaker. The open discussions moderated by Kafui Dey. Some were observations were made (including the two listed below) by the various CEOs present, and they were respectfully presented by GHANECC to the President to ponder:

1. Within the higher educated group, the main concern is that their university education does not prepare students sufficiently for the labour market. In Ghana, when you memorise your books word for word, you will pass your exams; but it does not mean that you know what to do on the job when you have to make decisions of your own, show own initiative, or know how to behave or adapt in certain work-related situations. In other words, Ghanaian higher education does not focus enough on the soft skills – such as creativity, innovation, perseverance, and problem solving aptitudes - associated with practical capabilities. 

2.  The Ghanaian education system can help to solve these issues by training people for jobs also, rather than just for diplomas. In this context, [it] will be useful [to involve] entrepreneurs and managers (or instructors of practice) that train students and educate them on company practicalities, such as the importance of providing good service, timeliness, meeting targets, and the value of every single role within a company, whether it is at a low-level or a high-level end. 

It is clear that useful knowledge comes from experience, and experience comes from work. It is a rare person indeed who is raised to sit for 16 years in school - all the way through university – merely dangling information back and forth without any useful hands-on work, and then suddenly released, with a certificate loaded with theories, to now start work in a non-sitting active posture. We are creatures of habit, and that expectation is as fruitless as it is ridiculous. 

Without learning through the hands, the passion for superior performance is not engaged, and the attainment of the fruits of the world remains an illusion, hence the poverty in the midst of plenty.

 

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