award of ghanaian scholarships 1
TRANSCRIPT
RETHINKING GHANA GOVERNMENT SCHOLARSHIPS
PROSPER YAO TSIKATA, MSc.; M.A.; M.S.;
Ph.D. Student
Purpose of Scholarships• To encourage and reward
academic excellence/promote teaching on university campuses
• To assist brilliant but needy students who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks
• Sponsorship in the hope that research breakthrough by talented beneficiaries would help society progress.
Archetype of Scholarship
Credentials and Contribution
• Dr. Ave Kludze, a Ghanaian rocket scientist, first African to command spacecraft with NASA
• Developed the Extravehicular Activity Infrared (EVA IR) camera for space-walking astronauts (it helps detect cracks and surface defects, space shuttle COLUMBIA)
• Satellite Communication, e.g., cell phones and mobile technology
Satellite Communications
Symbol for Manipulations?
Symbol for Manipulations?
SOURCE OF FUNDS
• 2.5 % of Value Added Tax
• Funds GETFund • From which GoG
Scholarships are awarded
• 2.5 % of Value Added Tax
• Funds GETFund • From which GoG
Scholarships are awarded
Contributors to the Fund
Award of Scholarships • GETFund + Scholarship Secretariat
= fronts for manipulations from the Castle
• Family members, friends, party apparatchiks without academic potentials are beneficiaries, to the neglect of the most talented
• They are unable to pass their exams and justify their inclusion
• GETFund + Scholarship Secretariat = fronts for manipulations from the Castle
• Family members, friends, party apparatchiks without academic potentials are beneficiaries, to the neglect of the most talented
• They are unable to pass their exams and justify their inclusion
Cost for US Masters• Social Science and Humanities
US$70, 000 and minimum • Engineering and MBA range
from US$100,000 minimum • Medicine can even be higher• Exigencies: US$15, 000
minimum
Undergraduate Cost • It can be even more expensive at the undergraduate level, since you are multiplying any yearly cost x 4• Lets peg the minimum at US$150, 000
Two anecdotes Cand. A. Medical Dr. (name withheld)
• Best Student West Africa 1994
• Best Science Student from Ghana 1996
• President of the Medical School Association
• Top 97% Medical Board Exam, USA (Internal med)
• Sub-specialization
My Housemate, Cand. B 2005
• Second Class Lower• Gender Studies, Hull
University • Experienced academic
difficulties • Could not produce thesis • Extension of program at
extra cost to the taxpayer
• J.S.S. Teacher
Spending on what we Produce
Spending on what we Produce
• Why would government sponsor scholarships in areas there are more qualifications than jobs?• Why would government
waste in areas where people can be trained locally?
State of Affairs on Campuses
•Academic staff are being denied scholarships with non-academic staffs (administrators) misappropriating the facility to themselves.• The effect is they all jaunting around teaching classes when they should be in their offices processing documents (documents that should take 30 minutes to process now take a week).•Issues of conflict of interest, etc., does not prick their dead conscience.
Best Practice
• Scholarships are advertised by awarding institutions, criteria well-defined, selection executed with rigor
• Each stage of the process transparent, non-discriminatory, and aimed at the most qualified (reviews done blindly)
• Devoid of government interference and manipulations.
Own Anecdote • Was admitted to Ohio University on
the strength of my qualifications without having to know anyone
• Students do the initial selection of applications based on criteria outlined
• Scholarships dispensed by professors based research interest and academic strength, not government and official manipulations
Action Plan • A call for investigation into the award
of all Government Scholarships in the last decade (under NPP and NDC).
• Keeping government out of business of awarding Scholarships.
• Transparency – members of awarding committee selected from student-appointees, civil society appointees/emphasis on blind review, etc.
