Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has shut down 149 distance learning centres operating without proper accreditation.
Director-General of GTEC, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, who revealed this at a two-day capacity-building workshop on Ghana’s Open and Distance Learning (ODL) policy implementation strategies, said the centres were located in inappropriate places such as churches, offices of public institutions among others, making them unfit to run education programmes.
“These centres are not fit for purpose; they are being operated in spaces that are not designed for academic use. Some are even within second-cycle schools already overwhelmed by the double-track system. We cannot continue to allow such practices,” he said.
“Ghana has made significant efforts to expand access to tertiary education, but what we’re seeing in some cases is not true distance learning. It’s simply distance from quality education. We cannot accept the duplication of conventional classrooms in makeshift venues across the country and call it distance education,” he stated.
Prof. Jinapor also indicated that though the country has been working towards promoting tertiary education, distance education seems to be replaced by what he described as ‘distancing education’.
A Commonwealth expert on Open and Distance Learning, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, for his part, called on stakeholders to have further discussions on the structures for open distance learning and mode of delivery.
GTEC, however, reaffirmed its commitment to upholding quality standards and strengthen regulatory oversight to ensure that tertiary education in Ghana remains credible and aligns with both national and international standards.
The Commission, in the early part of the year, began an exercise to warn the public against the unlawful use of honorary academic titles, describing the practice as misleading and a breach of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023).
According to Prof. Jinapor, individuals cannot use the title ‘Honorable Doctor,’ or ‘Doctor (Honorable),’ or ‘Doctor (Honoris Causa),’ or ‘Honorable Prof.,’ or ‘Prof. (Honoris Causa).’
Individuals who adopt titles such as “Doctor” or “Professor” solely on the basis of honorary awards are in violation of Ghana’s education regulatory laws and may face prosecution, he added.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah