Over-education or Miseducation?

Ghana on the global stage

Ghana, a vibrant and leading African nation is located in West Africa. Formerly a British colony during the 19th century, it became known as the Gold Coast due the wealth of natural resources it has and its vast natural reserves of Gold. It was known as the Gold Coast until 1957 when it gained political independence from the British empire. As the first African nation to become independent, it continues to lead the way when looking at the development of Sub-Saharan Africa. This has not been without challenge .

According to recent statistics obtained from the World Bank , Ghana is classified as a lower middle income country with gross national income per capita ranging from $1026-$3995 . Ghana has shown significant growth since its classification as a Highly indebted poor country in the year 2001 (HIPC). This was an initiative of the World Bank in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund . This HIPC initiative gave much needed debt relief to enable developing countries to focus further on growth without the burdens of excessively large and growing amounts of external debt. Education has always been high on the agenda of the Ghanaian government to secure the growth and continued development of the country. This is evidenced by the consistent attention that the government has placed on the education sector. However , there are many issues that plague the education sector in Ghana which have in turn had a knock on effect on the development of the country.

For this article , I focus on a current issue that presents a challenge in the area of education and its resultant effect on development in Ghana.

Education in Ghana - Before colonialism and after colonialism

Education in Ghana before the years of colonialism has been recorded as mainly informal . This was not done in a specific formal setting of a school and was based mainly on vocational and technical skills and characterised by apprenticeships . This also included the passing on of knowledge about agriculture, heritage and lineage and all aspects of culture. This form of education still exists and although it remains unpopular, has resulted in the perpetuation of some traditions and has kept the valued culture of Ghanaians alive.

History also gives account of the fact that missionaries of the Christian faith as well as explorers from Europe once they were settled in Ghana, began to set up formal schools . The most notable were the Wesleyan movements in Christianity who taught English in order to spread the gospel. Simultaneously , representatives of the British empire ensured that formal schools were set up making it possible to spread the culture of Britain and to employ the labour needed. They also ensured that English was taught and the British culture was adopted. These two dominant factors have contributed heavily to what education in Ghana is like today and how it has evolved after colonialism. What occurred was a major shift from education being given to suit the needs of communities to support families for example in areas like subsistence farming, to a focus on academic subjects in formal schools in line with the western culture.

Over-education ?

Education as mentioned above has remained high on the agenda for the government. This has been fed by the embedded and subtle belief that the more one was educated the higher the potential earnings of the individual and for that matter for the society . This was sold as the ultimate goal or desire of many parents to invest in their children’s education to ensure that they reached the highest levels be it a Bachelors degree , Masters degree or Doctorate. There was already heavy government investment in primary education therefore for families to attain these desired levels of education , it would be at the total cost of that individual or family. It was and is not uncommon to hear of families making huge personal sacrifices and huge financial investments into tertiary education so that their children could become doctors, lawyers, bankers , engineers or professors as these white collar jobs were proven to give higher earnings . This has created and fostered the expectation that parents or families have that their heavy investment in their children’s education will be repaid by being looked after in their old age as their children would be well off as a result of being highly educated.

This is where the issue of over-education arises. Has the extensive investment in tertiary education paid off?

Unemployment in Ghana

There are now record numbers of graduates from the growing number of tertiary institutions with high levels of quality education , some with very strong affiliations with universities from the United Kingdom and the United States . Yet there are also massive records of unemployment especially among the youth of Ghana. Ghana’s rate for unemployment as at 2018 was 6.71% an increase of 0.08% in 2017. There have been many debates as to why this is the case. However , the focus for this essay is to look at the kind of education being received especially at the tertiary level. Why are there so many unemployed graduates? Is it that despite their advancement in knowledge they actually lack the skill set required for limited number of white collar jobs available in the country? Have they been over educated or miseducated? Miseducated In the sense that they have only been taught the theoretical aspects of disciplines and lack the actual practical application of the respective fields of study? When critically addressing the content of the curricula, how much of it actually relates to study that not only is intentionally recognised but also relevant and unique to Ghana? These questions remain hard to answer without specific and targeted research . However, in the absence of this it is an overwhelming situation that exists where highly educated labour are unable to find employment or even begin to create jobs as the actual skill is inhibited or is simply lacking.