Education in Africa needs radical overhauling - Spio
The Minister for Trade and Industry of Ghana, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has told a summit conference on Higher Education in Africa that the content of the continent’s educational system needs radical overhauling if African University graduates are to more readily find employment.
The former Education Minister was of the view that until African countries got help from their own industrialists to change the curriculum of their schools, especially in the secondary and tertiary sector, Africa will continue to produce graduates who will find a hard time finding jobs or starting their own businesses. Dr. Spio was speaking at the three-day African Higher Education Summit, attended by some 800 ministers, ambassadors, university vice chancellors and professors, educational planners, as well as officials of major multilateral and bilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations.
He disclosed that having been Minister of Education and now working as Minister of Trade and Industry, he had become keenly aware of the total disconnect between what most African economies need and the knowledge content of graduates most African schools and colleges were producing. The Minister stated that a three-way consultation needs to be held urgently between governments, industry and academia to introduce a whole new set of relevant knowledge into the education curriculum, to ensure that graduates could become more employable or could begin their own businesses. He said non-governmental organizations like the African Business Center for Developing Education (ABCDE) could be among agencies that could initiate and manage a range of programs to bring professionals and industrialists into classroom to help change the limited range of knowledge content most students are exposed to. Dr. Spio-Garbrah urged that through internships, attachments, career counseling and guidance, industrial days, excursions, mentorships and other interventions, it was possible for entities such as ABCDE to bring the world of business and industry closer to classrooms.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=351166
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