Current standard of English Language poor —Prof. Edu-Buandoh

A Professor of English at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh, has expressed great concern about the current standard of both spoken and written English in the country.

She says it is not satisfactory

“I think the writing part is the worst. Students cannot write coherently nor cohesively. Composition is lost. So when they are asked to write reports at their workplaces after  school, it becomes a huge challenge for them,” she said.

In an interview with The Mirror on Tuesday after her recent promotion to the rank of a full professor, Prof. Edu-Buandoh explained that “teachers of English are trying their best within the circumstances and although teachers do not expect students to speak like natives, we expect some level of proficiency which we do not get these days from them”.

To resolve this problem, the English professor said there was the need to encourage students to develop the love for reading so that they can build their vocabulary and improve their writing.

The Journey
As a child, Prof. Edu-Buandoh wanted to do something different from the career she has pursued. As she put it, “I got into teaching by default”.

She wanted to be a private secretary of some chief executive because she had seen in movies that they dressed up to work and that was a big attraction to her. However, in the 70’s when she was unable to pass her Ordinary Level Mathematics, her father, Rt Rev. KBM Edu-Buandoh sent her to the Komenda Training College to read for Teacher’s Certificate “A” ( Post Middle).  It was whilst she was at Komenda that she eventually passed the O Level Mathematics.

Initially, she was very angry because she didn’t want to be a teacher, but when she went on her first teaching practice, she realised that teaching could be fulfilling and fun and didn’t want to do anything else since then.

With hard work, focus, determination, community service and respect for all, she has reached to the pinnacle of her profession. She has recently been promoted to the rank of a full professor of English after waiting for two years. 

Challenges
Prof. Edu-Buandoh, who was the first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the UCC (retired last year) said it hadn’t been all rosy on her way to the top.

She explained that she had to work extra hard as a female in a dominantly male profession, adding that even though most of her male colleagues cooperated fully with her, there were a few “of them who felt threatened by my person as a female leader, and never brought themselves to accept my leadership”.

On some of the challenges she faced pursuing her career, Prof. Edu-Buandoh observed that combining work with home and church duties as a leader had meant that “there was no time to just idle because I had to do all these full time”.

She said she had been in university management for over 18 years at different levels and in all those years, she had worked till late to ensure that everything went well.

Prof. Edu-Buandoh saluted her class two teacher at Saltpond Methodist Primary B, Ms Frances Saah, for being a great influence on her.

“She was so pretty and nice. I got to like English because she made spelling fun in class. I have lost her contact but I would love to see her again,” she wished.

She also mentioned Prof. Kofi Edu Yankson and Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as having made a great impact on her career.

Now retired from active service, Prof. Edu-Buandoh is engaged in post-retirement  lecturing at the Department of English at the UCC, where she continues to train, teach and mentor graduate students. 

She has mentored many students, some of whom are now professors, senior lecturers and lecturers in UCC and other universities and colleges now.

Supporting female education
But her passion now is the Dora Edu-Buandoh Foundation she has set up to support the education of females from the Central Region in tertiary education by providing coaching seminars, mentorship and scholarships to help keep them in higher education. 

“I want to see the foundation grow to help many girls to become more educated and resourced as I am”.

 Prof. Edu-Buandoh holds a PhD from the University of Iowa, USA; MPhil and Bachelor’s degrees in English from the UCC and a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

She is also a qualified teacher, having passed out with a Certificate ‘A’ from Komenda Training College,and a Diploma in Education from UCC.

Prof. Edu-Buandoh was the Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies from 2016-2018.

She was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the Head of Department of English and the Coordinator for the Communicative Skills programme at the University of Cape Coast.

As an academic, she has taught in her discipline at all levels in the university; she has also presented research papers at national and international conferences and published on discourses in reputable journals and websites, both locally and internationally. Her research specifications are Critical/Discourse Studies, Literacy and Multilingual Studies.  She has supervised several postgraduate theses.

Prof. Edu-Buandoh served as the Chairman for the Presidential Committee on Emoluments of Article 71 Office Holders (2012-2016). She also serves as a patroness of many youth organisations both at church and in the university.  

Prof.  Edu-Buandoh has a son, Dr Fiifi Edu-Afful, and three grandchildren, Araba, Ewuresi and Kuukua.

Her mother was Mrs Dina Edu-Buandoh. She is the third of five children with two sisters Faustie and Regina, and two brothers KB and Francis.

Writer’s e-mail: [email protected]/ [email protected]