Communication teachers launch association

AN association of communication teachers in Ghana’s tertiary institutions has been launched at Winneba with a call on members to help promote high standards of education and scholarship in the field of communication.

The Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Communication Educators Association of Ghana (CEAG), Professor Kwame Karikari, said the association had been formed primarily to contribute to higher standards in education in the broad discipline of communication studies.

He said the association was poised to uplift the standards of scholarship, and promote critical and innovative ideas in the field of communication, saying “we hope to enrich and upgrade the values and qualities of professional practice in the industry for which we train students”.

CEAG was officially launched as part of a two-day national conference held at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), which brought together academics, researchers and policymakers to discuss and share best practices in teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment issues in communication education in Ghana and abroad.

The conference, dubbed “Communication education in a disruptive era: curriculum development and pedagogical issues”.

Previous association

Prof. Karikari, who is also the Dean of Communication Studies, Wisconsin International University College, indicated that it was not the first time communication educators in Ghana and Africa were coming together to seek ways to promote their common goal of promoting high standards of education and scholarship in the field, and cited once vibrant African Council on Communication Education of previous decades as an example of how far the effort had come.

Africanise curriculum

Professor Kehbuma Langmia, a Professor of Communications, Howard University, USA, underscored the need for African universities to Africanise their curriculum by teaching and learning using their indigenous African local languages.

He said no nation in the world could ever develop by using the language of another country, and added that there was nothing wrong teaching communication in particular in African languages since everything could be explained in the local language.

“It is necessary to imbibe in our students Afrocentric research methods and theories that would well position them to contribute to the growth and development of the communication discipline and society as well,” he said.

Pay journalists well

Rev. Fr Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni, the Vice Chancellor of UEW, tasked CEAG to lead the crusade to lobby media owners to improve the living conditions and remuneration of media personnel so that those who had power and wealth did not hijack them for their selfish interests.

He said per a 2018 Pew Research Centre report, by 2030, a great number of high school leavers seeking further studies in tertiary education globally would opt for careers in communication related fields which would change the narratives on the traditional preference for law and medicine.