Development of Science and Technology in Ghana – Part 3

This article will be focusing on tertiary education with emphasis on the universities in Ghana and how they influence the development of Science and Technology. Most of the points which we shall discuss are also shared by universities in other African countries. In Ghana, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), under the Ministry of Education is directly responsible for managing tertiary education institutions. The universities are established to teach, educate, research and develop innovative ideas for the benefit of society, but depending on the resources a university has, its role may just be a partial fulfillment of the above functions.

Since the establishment of our public universities (University of Ghana, University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast) decades a go, there has been very little discussion about redesigning the curricula at the universities to specifically meet the demands of Science and Technology development in Ghana. Essentially, the same content of science syllabi has been taught over decades and may partially explain our present level of development in Science and Technology. The university graduates who have been produced by this system are not well suited to provide the necessary inputs for the Science and Technological development of our nation. In other words, they are unable to contribute effectively in that direction and the situation is not peculiar to Ghana, but to many other African countries. We need to take a critical look at the academic content of our science syllabi at the universities and restructure them to solve the problems of our country. To achieve this, academia and our local industry should foster good relationships so as to be able to identify specific problems in Science and Technology that need to be addressed in Ghana. The scientific and technological problems identified should then be reorganized and translated into a significant part of the lab and project work done at the universities. Such lab and project work will give room to students and professors alike to research and come up with solutions. A student who has graduated with such expertise is relevant to the economy because his or her skills can be directly employed or deployed to contribute to the Science and Technology development of the country.

This brings into question the state of funding at the universities to pursue Research and Development (R&D). Currently sources for funding R&D at the universities in Ghana mainly come from the government subvention, the GET fund and local industries. But contributions from these sources have not been enough to kick-start vigorous R&D in Ghana. I am suggesting here that a Research and Development Fund (RDF) is set up by the Ghana government and the government must be committed to contributing a reasonable percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Ghana into it annually. This must be seen by the government as building the capacity and capability for Science and Technology development in Ghana. The rest of the contributions to the fund must come from local industries, the African development bank, universities and countries with economic interest in Ghana as well as philanthropists. Researchers will have access to funds from the RDF by developing research proposals (which should contain among others, the objectives of the research, methods to pursue the research, expected outcomes and amount of funds needed for that purpose) and submitting them to an independent body for consideration. Such a body should be made up of varied professionals such as science professors, entrepreneurs and social scientists who are knowledgeable in their field. One key requirement for awarding grant money to an applicant will be that the proposed research should seek to address some of the key problems of our country. To efficiently manage the funds, it will be the duty of government, policy makers and fund administrators to have a scale of preference in place to determine which areas of Science and Technology need urgent funding and/or more funding. Establishment of a robust RDF will be one of the few but effective ways of creating an enabling environment for research into Science and Technology in Ghana. In line with the above, the Government of Ghana should set up a Research, Technology and Innovation center (RTIC) at the universities if it has not already done so, to see to the patenting of ideas which come out of such pursuits and transfer the technology as appropriate.

Funding is not the only factor that limits research. In fact adequate time is also a requirement for research. Where the student: faculty ratio is large (that is a large student population compared to the number of professors), professors have little time to engage in research. This is because the professor spends most of his or her time meeting with students who need assistance and the rest of the time for marking/grading papers. To partially alleviate the situation so as to be able to create some time for research, I recommend the following: first, conditions should be created such that professors teach continuously and intensively for at most two semesters and then the third semester is devoted to intensive research – that is, alternating two semesters of teaching and one semester of research. Second, I recommend that we de-emphasize the essay question format. This is because the essay question format usually requires the experience and knowledge of only the lecturer to mark/grade and can involve a great deal of time if it is to be done objectively, whereas other formats like multiple -answer question could be graded by the Teaching Assistants (TAs). Thus, in any examination we can limit the essay-type questions to about 50 % or less, the professor then provides answer keys for the rest so that TAs can mark/ grade them.

Generally, because of the fast pace of research discoveries in Science and Technology in the developed world, there could be a gap in scientific/technological knowledge between professors in the developing and developed countries – with the professors in the developing countries being at a disadvantage. This calls for several measures. The most basic is that the universities must subscribe to leading journal publications from America and Europe. These publications must be made available in electronic form so that both students and professors can have easy access to them, and it is important that both of them read the material. Seminars must be regularly organized to give room to both students and professors to discuss latest information they have read and gathered from the journals. This will partially bridge the information gap. I am also proposing that, it is about time we look into making some of our professors in the developed countries adjunct professors in our local universities. What that means is that, such professors in the developed countries will be attached to our local universities and they will spend about a month or so annually teaching at our universities. The adjunct professors will help build syllabi, teach and give seminars in areas they think are “new” in their field. This is intended to bridge the science information and technology gap between the developed and developing nations like Ghana. After all, this is not a new concept in other fields – especially soccer. When Ghana and other countries are going to play international games, they invite seasoned professionals playing in other countries to join the national team so as to increase their chances of winning. So we can employ the same technique here with our skilled science and technology professionals in the developed countries.

It is not clear whether the universities in Ghana (and for that matter other African countries) have a reward system in place for the professors teaching and researching on Science and Technology. Here, it is suggested that a well formulated reward system be put in place to acknowledge professors who are able to contribute to the development of Science and Technology in Ghana. Specifically, the system must identify and reward professors who are able to develop innovations which can lead to or has led to better technologies to teach science, process food and medicinal plants, increase the yield of animal and crop farming, tap into wind, solar and biomass energy… just to mention a few. And the reward should come in the form of good salary, research funding, equipment and larger laboratory space.

These factors are likely to attract and retain good professors, and catalyze the Science and Technology development in Ghana and other African countries. Please look out for the next article.

By Nana Osei-Kwabena
sciencnt@yahoo.com