Inertia killing creativity in Ghanaian universities - Prof McBagonluri

Award winning engineer and academic, Professor Fred McBagonluri has bemoaned the disconnect between Ghana’s tertiary education system and the realities on the job market.

Speaking on TV3 New Day, he said the educational system ought to be configured to reflect Ghana’s needs.

“You have to look at what your needs are; unlike the United States, we don’t have this major industries where students go on internships and get that knowledge-set that we think universities should not offer,” Professor McBagonluri stated.

Professor McBagonluri noted that views on university education that to suggest that it is not supposed to impact skills, but rather give fundamental skills is not right.

According to him, such notions are what have led to employers not being able to get the quality of students they desire because that is not what the universities are providing.

He stated that tertiary institutions have to ran a system which allows students get access to analytics, experiment, internship opportunities among other things that help to improve student’s skill set.

“We need to understand the ecosystem, and help children transition from school to the job market,” Professor McBagonluri who is also the Provost and President of Academic City College said.

He said although Ghana is not performing badly with regards to its tertiary education, there is the need to move away from the ‘old school’ way of doing things.

“It is about offering an educational system that allows creativity to foster, that allows people to create things, undo them and put them together. I think that is what we are missing; [our academic system] is still conservative and very old school,” he stated.

He reiterated the need to create an educational system that allows people to learn in a dynamic ecosystem.

The engineering professor with 22 patents to his credit charged the National Accreditation Board and major stakeholders in the educational sector to help shape some of these dynamics.

According to him, the country is missing an educational system that is evolving, dynamic and in tune with time, something he blamed on what he called “inertia”.

“Most of the people who run things in this country go abroad all the time, but the inertia that attempting to change things in a dynamic way will disrupt the establishment is what is limiting them.”

He also advised university graduates to take part in capacity building programs to improve themselves.

By Irene Amesimeku| 3news.com| Ghana