Rev. Dr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi
MANY GHANAIAN students being churned out from the country’s tertiary institutions are functionally illiterate, accounting for the poor performance at the workplace, newly elected President of the Ghana Baptist University College has observed.
Rev. Dr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi said the formation of the Graduate Unemployment Association is a byproduct of this phenomenon, warning that the problem would get worse unless special intervention is made by the training institutions.
Speaking at the 8th congregation of GBUC and his induction ceremony in Kumasi, the GBUC President asserted that the universities were responsible for the development as they had put financial consideration ahead of quality training.
According to him, the nation’s universities, in attempt to meet their financial obligations, admit more students beyond what their capacity can contain, and thereby compromise on teaching students how to organise and use knowledge acquired.
He intimated that the situation was causing the rise of the functional illiteracy rates which would go in tandem with the increasing availability of low-skilled jobs.
“Take for example, universities are training accountants who do not know anything about the use of excel; and likewise engineer trainees who have not seen the machines they read about. The repercussion is the poor performance at the workplace and the graduate unemployment,” Dr Adu-Gyamfi noted.
The Reverend Minister said GBUC, under his watch, would introduce critical thinking into the curriculum of the university college to challenge the mental faculty of students as part of the overall game change plan to assist in solving the knowledge-practical gap in the country.
He was also concerned about the creeping indiscipline eating the moral fibre of the Ghanaian society, which he indicated, was breeding corruption and mismanagement at the various strata in the nation’s life.
He expressed gratitude to the Ghana Baptist Convention for choosing him the President of GBUC, while giving the firm assurance to work to his best ability to improve the college.
Dr Adu-Gyamfi said GBUC was the nation’s best bet to restore hope since the school has the best hands to offer hand-on training and skills to students in the classroom.
In all, 480 students of GBUC graduated in courses relating to business administration, entrepreneurship, theology and education.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi