Ghana’s Human Resource Stinks

AN INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed educational reformer who contributed immensely to Ghana’s educational reforms, Prof. Jophius Anamuah Mensah says the country’s human resource base is incapacitated and needs urgent restructuring to fit into the 21^st Century.

He said the situation must be critically assessed because a strong workforce is the backbone of any country’s development.

“For every serious country to develop, the most important factor that needs to be considered is how to develop its human resource base,” he said.

Prof. Mensah made this known recently when the Accountancy Department of Cape Coast Polytechnic (C-Poly) held a dinner dance for students who have completed their three year accountancy course.

The occasion which was themed, “The role of HND Accountancy Graduates in Ghana’s Economy” attracted more than 200 graduates from the department.

In his address, Prof. Mensah said “Singapore, the US, UK and some African countries have developed their human resource base because they know that is the only way to have an economic boom. Why can’t we learn from them? We have all the necessary resources but we are still considered poor, why? We need to tap the knowledge of developed countries to help reshape our economy.”

The education reformer noted that Ghana’s 11 percent achievement in human resource development in comparison with the 80 per cent in developed countries is a national shame, adding that government ought to do more to eliminate the widespread poverty that is killing so many Ghanaians.

He therefore advised the graduates to implement whatever they had been taught in class and make use of all job opportunities that may come their way instead of waiting for white collar jobs.

On his part, a former lecturer of the National University of Lesotho and Chairman of the event, Haruna Ndebugri, charged the authorities of C-Poly to teach 21^st Century graduates how to create their own jobs in order to prevent them from chasing white collar jobs saying there are presently very few jobs available for the millions of graduates who complete their tertiary education annually.

“If we do not teach these graduates how to write standardized proposals, business plans, sponsorship letters among others for them to create their own jobs, then we have done a useless job and caused great harm to our motherland,” he added.

Mr. Ndebugri therefore urged the authorities to establish a business incubating system which will enable students come out with business plans and ideas on how to make those plans a reality which can be assessed critically by their lecturers before they leave school.
From: Desmond K. Dapaah, Cape Coast