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Tamale, Ghana – A month ago, specifically on November 18, 2017, the ‘Tamale Technical University’ (TaTU) held its 11th congregation which saw some one thousand, six hundred and ninety-four students successfully graduating with different honours.
Congregations or graduation ceremonies are very important occasions of every tertiary educational institution especially universities. Such activities provide opportunity for faculty and students to meet once again to reflect on their stay on campus over the years particularly prior to the exit of the latter from the university after taking their final exam. Most importantly, it is a period of recognizing hard work and academic excellence after years of studies.
School mates and classmates who have lost contact with one another after leaving campus few weeks or months get to reconnect once again and fraternize. It is a moment for some to showcase their best fashion sense ranging from hairstyle to the latest dresses and shoes or high heels.
One of the high points of a university’s congregation is showcasing its official colours. In any serious university, congregations and matriculations (a ceremony to officially induct fresh students into a university after they have gained admission) are a serious business, and efforts are made to ensure that every graduate or student wears the university’s graduation or matriculation robe.
Sadly, when the TaTU held its 11th congregation, what many people including myself did not want to see, they saw. About 80% to 90% of graduating students wore colours (robes) that belong to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Honestly speaking, that was an acceptable abnormally that should never have happened considering the significance of the occasion. And the Management of TaTU should bow their heads in shame for continuously allowing these kinds of mistakes to taint the external image of the institution.
I have been around for a long time, and have witnessed many congregations of TaTU since 2006 thereabout till date when it held its maiden congregation. Over the years, the University has relied on the University for Development Studies (UDS) for its robes during congregations and matriculations. But November 18th was an exception, because the UDS was also holding its 18th congregation on the same day as TaTU and management of TaTU had no option than to hire the robes of KNUST.
It is an insult to the competence, credibility and reputation of TaTU as well as lecturers of the Department of Fashion and Design. Why should a technical university that runs an HND and certificate programmes in Fashion and Design find it necessary and reasonable to go and hire robes for congregations and matriculations? This is an institution that is supposed to be training manpower that is equipped with the required skills innovations or inventions. It beats the imagination of every right thinking person to ask why management of the university will think that hiring robes for congregation is not a problem at tall.
As a university that teaches fashion and design, this gives it a competitive advantage over other tertiary institutions in the region. This is where and how students in the Department of Fashion and Design can be resourced so that they can sew robes for the university’s congregations and matriculations as well as other schools that may be interested in buying robes for similar activities.
In the same vain, it is safe to say that management of the university should cease awarding certain contracts involving building and construction works to private contractors when its building technology department has the technical competence to execute such jobs. For instance, construction works such as painting, welding or fabrication of windows/doors, burglar proofs, building of toilet/urinary facilities, lecture halls and office furniture and among others should be done by students and lecturers of the university.
This action, if taken by management of the university, would save them a lot of money for other projects it wants to implement. They can make the university self-sufficient like GIMPA if they use their skilled students to provide services needed by other schools and business establishments in Tamale.
Personally, I think that TaTU can use its students to do all the aforementioned as part of their practical training under the supervision of their lecturers. However, management and lecturers should pay students some form of allowances whenever they are engaged in such activities aside the fact that they will be assessed by their lecturers for the award of marks for good performance.
Lest the management of TaTU has forgotten what the representative of Ghana’s Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, said at the 11th congregation as guest speaker.
He urged technical universities in the country to stick to their mandate of providing purely technical education that is capable of solving the problem of unemployment in the country.
He said as a country, Ghana needs more technically trained graduates who are skilled, possess the right balance of theory and practice and are capable of delivering hands on technical know-how with little supervision like the one envisaged in the Technical University Act.
“We need more people educated in technical, vocational and professional skills and less in general knowledge. That way, we will be producing skill sets aligned to the needs of the country”, he said.
Mr. Vice Chancellor of TaTU, the needs of this country which the distinguished Professor Kwesi Yankah spoke about include the needs of your university which is still struggling to gain a full university status because of its inability to meet certain requirements at the time of conversion.
Perhaps, taking the lead in the area of simple innovations and inventions like I suggested above would earn TaTU a good name in the Hall of Fame of Technical Universities in Ghana and globally.
Hiring robes in this 21st century for very important programmes such as congregations and matriculations usually organized by TaTU is unreasonable to say the least. TaTU can do better by showing the way for others to follow.
By Joseph Ziem
