THE FIRST CONVOCATION LECTURE OF THE LAWEH OPEN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE THEME: RELEVANCE OF OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY GHANA BY PROF. JOSHUA ALABI

8TH AUGUST 2019
 
The Chief Host
Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania and the Guest of Honour
President of Laweh
Special Guest
Honourable Ministers, Ambassadors  and Members of Parliament
Members of the University Council
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellors of Sister Institutions
Registrar and Registrars from Sister Institutions
Deans and Directors
Heads of Department
Niimei, Naamei and Nananom
Members of Convocation
Graduands
Members of the Press
Distinguished Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Background
I deem it an honour to be giving the keynote lecture at this landmark event. Chief Host, Guest of honour, Ladies and Gentlemen, times have changed a lot and technology has changed the way we do many things in the world. However, the way we do education is not changing along with demographic and behavioural changes emerging.  
Sometime ago, we wrote love letters to our pen-pals, go the post office to get stamps to post and it took days to arrive. Today people do not need stamps to transmit love letters anymore because emails have taken over. Social media have taken over the pen-pal system. People need not wait for weeks before one letter reaches the love one, by a touch on whatsApp, the love letter has arrived. However, when it comes to education, expect to spend the same number of years in school, studying many of the things that are not relevant in contemporary times.
 
Many old schooled people managing our educational systems expect that we should continue to follow the same regimes that we followed hundred years ago, when a few privileged people wore khaki-khaki, with knee-high socks, stood in lines, recited songs, marched around in lines each morning and studied structured curriculum that contained many things they did not need and were judged at same time, the same way through a system called examination and received a piece of paper called a certificate at the end.
 
Today, do we still need that system or a different way of acquiring knowledge, in an era when knowledge abounds all around us? Why should we ask all to run when some want to walk? Why do we ask people to crawl to the same destination, when they want to run to different destinations in their own way in their own time?
 
What do we actually need from education, certificates or learning? Why should we in this 21st century try to do education the same way it was done in the age of the industrial revolution, when the 21st century is characterised by the technological evolution?
 
Why should we force people to arrive at the same destination at the same time, when we ask them to run a race? Why are we forcing people to walk to the post office and send mails, when they can sit in the comfort of their rooms and send emails, or whatsApp, which are faster and more effective? This should not be the case, but this is the case for our current educational system. Something must be fighting against the tide. We seem to be using traditional style schooling to fight against the tide of learning, and that is the relevance of todays lecture.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, the educational context in Ghana has been quite evolutionary with a number of policy changes and interventions aimed at improving the educational outcomes in the country for a better Ghana. However, the way education is done has not seen much change inline with changing global trends. In recent times, some of the policy interventions shaping schooling not education in Ghana include:
• The change from 3 to 4years and back to 3 for senior high schools
• The free SHS policy with its benefits and attendant issues
• Community based secondary schools versus elitist boarding school system
• Reforms in the tertiary education sector, characterized by re-enforcement of traditional systems of teaching and learning, which fight against the tide of real changes in the old order of things
• The conversion of colleges of education to tertiary status and now the transition to university colleges
• The introduction of distance education into public tertiary universities, with a very slow transition or virtually non-existent move to the open flexible learning system that allows people to learn what they need at their own pace and their own way in a cost effective and efficient manner
• Ghana has still not got up with the open system of education, which is an adult education system that provides flexibility to choose what people need to learn at any time, anywhere. The open system exists at least in theory but not in practice.
• Draft Tertiary Policy which prescribe a number of policy changes in the area of governance and quality assurance is another
• The proposed harmonization of public university laws
• The proposed central admission system for universities
• The proposed establishment of an “Open University in Ghana to provide avenues for work-study programmes and life-long learning and equipping” (Draft Tertiary Education Policy, 2019, pg. 10) among many other initiatives, interventions and policy changes are but a few to mention.
It must however be noted that though Ghana has made some good gains in the education sector, there are a number of key issues that constrain the achievement of the desired outcomes from education to support and accelerate socio-economic advancement.
 
One of the major issues is the fact that over the years our education has tended to focus more on certification rather than learning. This is why educational fraud and examination malpractices have become some of the issues we have been battling with at all levels of our educational system. To think of it, should the current examination system be the only way of judging what someone has learnt and how useful that person can be to society?
 
In a Knowledge based economy, learning is the key to sustainable development. There is no argument about the link between accessible quality education and the level of development of a country. Education is a fundamental human right and is indispensable for the achievement of sustainable development. But learning not schooling is what makes the difference because schooling leads to certification and certification without morality and a sense of contribution is a weapon of mass destruction.
 
Why do we assume that people can ensure good governance because they passed a test in theoretical mathematics and chemistry or leadership? How can we assume that we can effectively empower girls and women when only a few can have access to high levels of education because of the many barriers that robe women from running at the same rate as men at some point in their lives?
 
How do we expect to combat climate change when our education is more focused on how many people get all As in a subject and not what they do with the knowledge?
 
How do we expect the current system of education defined largely by formal schooling to help us fight inequality and end extreme poverty when we continue to look down on other forms of learning and empowerment? and in all , we continue to leave some stakeholders, including, employers, society, and industry, out of the educational enterprise and educational goal?
 
The educational goal in contemporary times is what has come to be known as Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which is to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The operative concept here is Life-long learning for all. SDG4 is about social justice and equity in education. No one should be left out and no one should be denied that fundamental right, the right to learn and be empowered not only at the primary and secondary levels but most importantly higher levels.
 
Though the foundation to a quality and accessible education is important, what makes the difference for development is not mere primary and secondary education but post secondary education. This is because, it is at the tertiary or post secondary level that skills and competences are acquired and new knowledge from research and action bring about needed improvement.  
 
I have often argued that for far too long, Africa has robbed itself of the true driver of development by over-emphasizing universal basic and secondary education at the detriment of skill and higher education. This has perpetuated semi literacy in most parts of the continent.
In a couplet in Alexander Pope's poem "An Essay on Criticism" (1711) it was stated, "A little learning is a dangrous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again”.  
 
The cancer of little learning has been undermining Africa’s sustainable develop agenda for far too long. There is, consequently a need for a paradigm shift in Africa’s concept of education and this is where Open and Distance education comes in handy.
 
Since the beginning of the 1960s when Africa started gaining independence from colonialism, higher education has become an increasingly important player in the realisation of the national development goals. However, Africa continues to do higher education the same way that the Colonial Masters taught us. We have not yet come to the realization that we have to do higher education our own way, in a manner that suits the needs and resources of our context.
 
Realizing the importance of higher qualifications, there has been growing demand for access to higher education in developing countries in the midst of limited resources. To meet the demand, many countries are moving with the current technological tide to adopt more flexible distributed learning systems to provide access and removes barriers to quality and inclusive education. Countries like South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Botswana, UK, US, China, Malaysia among others have gone ahead of Ghana to establish open universities. Evidence also shows that distance learning is as effective as traditional schooling systems. The truth is in the next decade; countries and institutions that will not invest in flexible and technological learning would be left behind.
 
Chief Host, Ladies and Gentlemen, in this lecture, I intend to present an opinion on the contemporary educational context in Ghana in relation to Open and Distance learning and suggest some views on how open and distance learning can be strategically deployed to mitigate social inequalities in education, enhance access and quality, reduce cost and address the mismatch between academia, industry and labour market, which produce ambiguous situations of graduate unemployment.
 
The Contemporary Ghanaian Context of education
Ghana is currently a country of just about 30 million people. Ghana recently made the transition to lower middle-income status and has made some good progress in education although with some key issues. Key gains made in the education sector in Ghana include:
 
• The considerable expansion of access to basic education with a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which exceed 100% for KG and primary and are over 85% for JHSlevel, about 50% for Secondary in 2016/17, and a tertiary rate of 16.07% from less than 5% in the 1990s 2016 (UIS, UNESCO institute of statistics 2018 and the Education Strategic Plan)2. This means that for every 100 people who qualify to enter the tertiary system in Ghana, only 16 people can have access. Collective efforts of government, private sector and industry over the past two decades have resulted in this significant improvement in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which is nearly twice the average for sub-Saharan Africa, of less than 10% (GER – 8.45%). However this is clearly not enough as Ghana’s current GER is well below the world average of 36.77% in 2016 (UIS, 2018).
• Despite the gains made in the last two decades with education in Ghana, a number of key socio-economic, and political challenges exist. The main models of education have hindered the realization of the expected development outcomes.
• Specifically, the key issues affecting the education sector in Ghana currently include but not limited to the:
• Incessant policy changes, (3-4 and visa versa, free SHS, reforms across all the levels of education at the same time particularly secondary and higher education. It is quite evident that the free SHS policy plan for example was not backed by adequate preparation. Here of key concern is the lack of adequate space, lack of adequate teachers and the Shift systems of Blue and Gold. The proposed joint admissions system contained in the draft policy is another provision that is already sending panic waves as some anticipate that it would compound the complexities to come with the enormity of admissions of free SHS graduates on its own.
Recommendation: Challenges relating to lack of adequate space and the shift system can be addressed by resource sharing through Open Supported Learning. A detail description of how this can be achieved can be shared through a concept note should it become necessary. The issue of low student–teacher ratios at both the secondary and tertiary levels can also be addressed by a blended or hybrid mode approach.
• Relatively high enrolment ratios at the secondary but low at tertiary levels: With the consequent increase in enrolments from the free SHS policy over 500,000 new entrants are expected to apply to the existing universities in the year 2020. Together, other the existing universities and university colleges cannot absorb even a quarter of these students as the GER is only 16% in 2018. The National Open University is a sure intervention to mitigate this strategic challenge. Access can further be enhanced through flexible open distributed education model quite different from the distance education currently practiced by traditional universities.
• Low Textbook–Student ratios and delays in textbooks production. As the Gross Enrolments Ratios for SHS increased due to the introduction of the free SHS policy in Ghana, another problem emerged and that is the acute decrease in the textbook to students ratios  and substantial delays in the production of textbooks particularly maths which now stand at a ratio of 0.5 (ESP 2018-2030).  
• Recommendation:  the deployment of the E-Library systems, which is a key feature of open learning, can be used to address this challenge.
• Restricted access due to C grade requirement: Though some windows of opportunities exist for Diploma and Mature entry modes, opportunities to explore other flexible open modes exists but this will require a comprehensive qualifications framework and Recognition of Prior Learning policy framework just as exists in many of the countries that have gone ahead of Ghana in this respect. Though COTVET has developed both a qualifications framework and Recognition of Prior Learning Policy Framework, this is limited to the TVET system and is it not recognized by the National Accreditation Board. Both the COTVET qualifications framework RPL policy are yet to be operationalized. It must be noted that Mohammedhbai Gollam, once secretary General of the Association of African Universities, in his book the “Massification of Education in Africa noted that Ghana and Kenya have one of the strictest entry requirements on the continent. The question is, whether there is substantial evidence to suggest that those with WASSCE grade D and E are not capable of university education? If there is it would be prudent for the National Council for Tertiary education to share it and reference that as the premise for the C grade policy recommendation.
• Another concern in the proposed new tertiary policy is the condition that graduates with Diploma or Higher  National Diploma will have to do two years of waiting before they continue. What exactly is the objective behind this?  Are we going to get them jobs? If they are not able to secure jobs for some number of years, they wait?  Why do we not rather ask PHDs and Research Masters Degree holder to work for at least two years before they join academia so that they can have some experience to share?
• Inadequate infrastructural resources, and Limited funding and high cost of current educational modes.  The traditional face-to-face, brick and mortar education have become generally expensive as a main delivery mode. Many world-class universities are deploying flexible distributed and transnational learning by deploying technology. Emphasis is now shifting from teaching reliant approaches to competency and outcome based learning approaches. Even the current distance education mode in Ghana, which should reduce cost, is still very costly because it relies mainly on print materials and the study centre system, which has very high administrative overhead cost.
Recommendation: The Open and Distance learning system, which relies more on technology mediation as a form of flexible distributed learning system breaks the physical barriers of infrastructure required. Contemporary ODL practices also allows for sharing of available resources. If Ghana has an open learning resource centre or a National Open University where the various universities can share resources from as is done in Australia, cost of running both the traditional and open and distance education will be reduced.
• Mismatch between labour market needs, graduates characteristics and graduate unemployment. Several reports have indicated severe mismatch between the skills required by industry or labour market for driving development and those acquired from formal education. (The Africa-America Institute 2015).  Open and Distance Learning can be deployed to strategically cure the mismatch between academia, graduate characteristics, labour market and industry. This is because ODL intrinsically supports and promotes working studentship, whether in full time or part time employments.  
Recommendation: To address the academic-industry mismatch, there is need to consciously integrate Work-Base Learning into Open and distance learning. To do this,  government should promote, protect and support open and distance education as a strategic tool to improve both quality and access to secondary and tertiary education. As part of the strategy, establishment and use of professional advisory boards and stakeholder engagements should be a policy requirement for curriculum development and outcome based assessments. Competency and outcome based learning assessments should in some cases replace the current examination system, which advances malpractices and academic fraud in many instances.
According to the Abdulai Abukari &Bawa Kuyini Ahmed  in a study conducted and published in May 2019, Work-based learning approaches and models have been rising over the last two decades in higher education practices across many countries, such as in the UK and Australia. This an an intervention to address the growing gap between what happens in academic institutions and the expectation of stakeholders. Abdulla & Kuyini  note that “Doing work of any kind has always come up as an important platform for different kinds of learning, whether viewed as formal or informal, planned or unplanned, certificated or non-certificated”. There seems to be a growing trend among the new generation Y the Millinials and generation Z who prefer to choose what they want to learn whether or not it may lead to certification.
Abdulai & Kuyini further note that Boud and Solomon (2001,4) defines WBL in higher education as a ‘term being used to describe a class of university programmes that bring together universities and work organisations to create new learning opportunities in workplaces’. The stress here is on HE institutions working with organisations to develop programmes that meet not only academic expectations but also relevant to the workplace in terms of creating learning opportunities whose outcome would be directly beneficial to practise. In WBL , ‘learners are simultaneously full-time employees whose programme of study is embedded in the workplace’. In this perspective, emphasis is placed on the work-status of the learner and the integration of programme activities into workplace practices to form a process that allows all the different components and players to work integratively to make learning directly and practically responsive to the needs of the workplace. Medhat (2008,8) also defined WBL as a ‘process for recognising, creating and applying knowledge through work, for and at work to form part or all of what is required for a  qualification’. ’Medhat’s perspective recognises and underscores the importance of informal and experiential learning as a basis to generate and facilitate useful and applied learning.
The following are some practical examples of the power of Work Base Learning as a tool to address the industry-academic mismatch.
Example 1 As a young son of a farmer, I learnt how to drive the tractor on the farm. As young as 15 years I became a tractor driver. By 17 years of age, I could repair the tractor and combined harvester when they break down depending on the problem. If there were a system of recognizing the knowledge I acquired on the farm, I may have been encourage to pursue a respectable career in agriculture or mechanical engineering and who knows I may have been a successful global agri-businessman or mechanical engineer with an assembling plant by now who will be using indigenous knowledge that work in our context to make a huge developmental difference.
Example 2: My father Emmanuel Angenu of blessed memory was a mechanic who worked with John Holt Bathalamew in the Tamale. He had no certificate but rose to his highest level; Workshop Supervisor. A car of a senior government official was brought to their garage for repairs.  Considering the nature of the client, the engineer with a university degree was tasked to work on it. For several days they were not successful. My father opted to give it a trial   At this point the engineer who was my father’s boss invited him to try. Within minutes the problem was resolved by inserting a copper coin with a hole in the centre to some part of the gearbox. His monthly salary was increased because of this achievement. The skill applied in this case did not come from formal training but from work experience learning (WEL).  How many inventions and discoveries can we make by strategically integrating such work experience learning into our post secondary education system? China used a similar action based learning and research approach to developmental advancement in their context. So this kind of indigenous knowledge that works in our context can be further researched and validated by academics through ODL and Work – Base Learning integration. How many academics do we have working on Kantanka innovations? The work-base learning concept in ODL could apply to other professions, vocations and trades, like fashion, engineering, medicine, phyto-chemistry, herbal pharmacy, journalism and other vocations and crafts through a structured system of recognition of prior learning or work base learning. The craftsmen and women are those who make the economy what it is. They need to be empowered, encouraged and recognized.
• For example a lot of journalist in Ghana acquire knowledge on the job. Can we introduce a system of recognizing learning acquired through experience and certify it for further studies? Such open education approaches can offer people who the traditional system denies access the opportunity to sharpen their knowledge for improved outcomes and make them more impactful.
• Another example is where Medical Schools in the UK for example are using 3-D virtual and augmented reality to teach the students, whereas the practicals are offered not only at teaching hospitals but at the community medical facility levels which allows students to learn by problem solving. This makes knowledge acquired more useful and context specific. Such learning approaches provide a basis of integrated learning within the actual environments where the knowledge can be applied to solve real life problems.  
• The advanced countries have used such system to develop and go to the moon. When will Ghana change its grammar type elitist higher education system, which is not relevant to contemporary times?
• I know the conservative academics may disagree but I am talking about the future of the youth and the development of our dear country.
• Example 3: In a vetinary Institute in Russia, in the former Soviet Union, a student was to answer an examination question in an oral examination session about how a cow can be assisted to put to birth. The student who had ben working in a cattle range as a technical officer for years and had experience in assisting cattle deliver answered the question based on his practical experience. The professors on the panel told him it was not possible for the procedure he described to work because they knew an old theory about how it works. In response the student who was so confident about his experiential knowledge and challenged them to have his method tested on the field. The competency based assessment that followed led to a revision of the existing theory on how cows put to birth in Russia. Open and distance learning allows for such contributive learning where both learners and facilitators contribute to the learning process when done well.
• In all these areas , we can use work base learning to enhance educational utility and improve responsiveness to socio-economic needs.  Consciously integrating work base learning into ODL as it targets people already on the job, mature students in itself is a form of action research, which can lead to improvement in existing knowledge.
• There is need for a clear road map and exploration to understand practises that can address new educational delivery modes that are more flexible, contributive, distributive and cost effective.
• Strategically linking Higher Education to the knowledge and skill requirements of the labour market at both national and international levels, is an imperative for sustainable development, which makes ODL an effective vehicle for addressing the Industry academy mismatch.  
• Capacity Building and Resource Development
One of the biggest challenges facing the effective development of ODL in contemporary times in Ghana is the need to develop capacity for ODL.  Some academic are not technology savy.  Some will joking tell you they are BBC – Born Before Computer and are not willing to learn how to navigate comtemporary technologies as critical tools to enhance learning. I have maintained that one cannot give what he or she does not have. The first barrier to effective teaching and learning in Ghana is the need to build capacity of teachers and lecturers in IT, and this makes graduates of ODL more likely to deploy contemporary teaching methods better.
Perceptual Challenges of ODL
• Perceptual challenges of Open and distance learning compounded by key policy misinformation and positioning (eg The issue of the recent alleged letters to demote secondary level teachers whose certificates were acquired through distance and sandwhich modes of delivery, which was letter corrected as well the discrimination against some doctorates acquired through open and distance education are classical examples that much work is required to promote and position ODL as a strategic educational tool in Ghana
In Conclusion
All the afore mentioned issues of restricted access, low textbooks to student ratios, classroom to teacher ratios, lack of adequate infrastructure, industry-academic mismatch among others can be addressed with open and distance learning right from the secondary to the tertiary levels. This will require:
• A shift from certification without morality to learning with a consciousness for contribution
• Need for a comprehensive qualifications framework that incorporates recognition of Prior Learning to augment the current COTVET Policy Framework.
• Conscious effort by government to promote, support and protect ODL, recognizing that it is a new imperative.  
• The conscious integration of work-base learning into ODL as a strategic tool to address the academic-industry mismatch
• All of the key issues which impede the sustainable development of education in Ghana can be addressed by the deployment of technology at all levels of education. To do this , we need a complete paradigm shift in the entire educational philosophy. The focus of education will have to change from certification to learning informed.
• There is also the need for capacity development in Instructional Technology and new modes of delivery for all teachers and academics.
• The emphasis of education in contemporary Ghana should shift towards useful and applied learning informed by the acquisition and possessing knowledge, skills and attitudes that can impact humanity in Contemporary Ghana.
 
 
Critical Success Factors will include:
• Policy Framework for ODL
• Recognition of Prior Learning as key aspects of ODL
• Aggressive interventions to address the Perceptual Challenges
• Capacity Building and Resource Development
 
References
Abdulai Abukari & Bawa Kuyini Ahmed (2019) Integrating work-based learning into open distance learning in higher education – examining the prospects in a developing context from a student perspective, Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 24:1, 102-128, DOI: 10.1080/13596748.2018.1526910 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2018.1526910
Ministry of Education, Education Strategic plan 2018-2030, Accra
Ministry of Education (2019), Draft Tertiary Education Policy, Accra pg. 10