1. RETHINKING GHANA
GOVERNMENT
SCHOLARSHIPS
P R O S P E R YA O
T S IK A T A , M S c . ; M . A . ;
M .S .;
P h.D . S tu d e nt
2. 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.
4. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. Two anecdotes
C a n d . A . M e d ic a l D r . M y H o us e ma te , C a nd .
( n a m e w it h h e ld ) B 2005
• Best Student West Africa • Second Class Lower
1994 • Gender Studies, Hull
• Best Science Student University
from Ghana 1996 • Experienced academic
• President of the Medical difficulties
School Association • Could not produce thesis
• Top 97% Medical Board • Extension of program at
Exam, USA (Internal extra cost to the taxpayer
med)
• J.S.S. Teacher
• Sub-specialization
13. 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?
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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
17. 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.
18. End
• Posterity will not
forgive us for not
acting
• pytsikata@yahoo.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Where does government get money to offer scholarships to Ghanaians to study abroad? Sena Agbale
Why would a highly partisan government respect the rules? Patronage has consumed our society to the point that there is the need for a drastic measure to correct these things before they consume us all.
An extraordinary scholastic success story from an unimaginable place – Hohoe in Ghana. With all due respect to the president, I am sure that if his Fullbright Scholarship, for which we are all proud, was disbursed in the way and manner scholarships in Ghana have been disbursed in Ghana under his watch, I bet he would have been a professor today. Dr. Kludze wouldn’t have also been a space engineer today.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Born in Hohoe and arrived in the US in 1980 after high school. Illustrate no matter your place of birth or ethnicity. Mobile phones alone contribute US$56 billion to Africa’s economy. In Ghana, there are 21 million connections 88% penetration 2% of GDP and 10% of Government income.
We are all beneficiaries of satellite communication in many ways – personal communication, transfer of knowledge, mobile operations and so on.
Using the name of the state to offer scholarships and other public goods to families, friends, and party apparatchiks. You are complaining because you didn’t get anything. Yes, I am dissatisfied about the mode of distribution of these public goods and have the right to draw public attention to these forms of manipulation. In this regard, there is no difference between the NDC and the NPP. It has only been change of faces and not change of policy.
I still remember the death of four young men on that on that fateful May 11, 1995 when the protest against the Value Added Tax (VAT) turned bloody. But in the end, it has been passed. Unfortunately, not for the benefit of those who resisted it because they were going to contribute the most, but to the benefit of the rich, their cronies, party apparatchiks, and gamily members.
The contributions to the fund come from every Ghanaian including you and I, and the Kayayei. If scholarships are to increase our alternatives and opportunities, can we say they have had any implications for these individuals?
Why was Fosuaba Banahene, the administrator of GEFTund under the NPP sacked? Did that change anything? Certainly, a change of government in future will see the current occupant of that post out. Is anyone here who knows what the criteria is for the award of Ghana Government scholarships? People are even getting scholarships to pursue English for beginners under the NDC, a party that was on the rooftops condemning these forms of manipulations.
There is no doubt the US graduate schools use the GRE/GMAT/LSAT to set admission baselines. Though known to be skewed against some geographical regions, it ensures some platform is provided to close the door against low standards. The UK on the other hand is about the ability to afford the fees. There are cases of individuals with Teachers cert. “A” and 4 years teaching experience from Ghana being offered a Master’s programs and so on.
We cannot continue with the status quo, it is holding our development back. Lets all take a deep breath and question where we are heading with this sort of mediocrity on the back of the taxpayer.
I encouraged the winner of the best student West Africa award (1994) and best science student from Ghana award (1996) for us to meet the then Education Minister, Mr. Harry Sawyer to make a request for scholarship, since there was no information anywhere about any Ghana Government scholarship of the sort. Mr. Sawyer did not volunteer to assist, he said all scholarships had been removed to the Castle, so we could go to the castle, the seat of Government. Being who he is, the gentleman decided not to push any further. Years on, when he was still looking for funding for his specialist training in Biomedical Informatics, here was a well-connected J.S.S teacher and a housemate of mine whose scholarship was offered to her simply by a phone from the husband to GETFund. She was reading Gender Studies. The physician is now a specialist by the benevolence of the American taxpayer. The teacher is a Northerner and the physician an Ewe! This happened both under the NPP and the NDC. I use this story to illustrate the weaknesses of the institutions, allowing personal interest to override national interest and merit. We can choose to continue in the circle of hatred disallowing reforms through the unalloyed support we offer our political parties from each side – “divide and conquer mentality” – which gives the politicians a blanket cheque to act with impunity or choose to turn our attention to these things.
If it cost a minimum of US$70, 000 to train one graduate in Gender Studies in an American University, obviously that amount can either be expended to expand facilities in Ghanaian universities to make room for more admissions or could be expended to train 10 of such individuals locally.
Wait till you get to parliament then you can work to change the rules. But let me tell you that the one who will speak the truth doesn’t need to be in parliament to speak the truth. A girl who failed her basic English exams twice, increasing funding by US$12, 000
British Commonwealth Scholarship, DfiD Scholarship, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fulbright (cite the example of the president whose father was just a trained teacher).
Eastern scholarships were dispensed equitably based on competence, and academic strength but our own has become another platform for the advancement of corruption.
Can someone tell us how parliamentarians select those they sponsor, if not just based on “whom you know.” I have seen MPs expended their common fund in sponsoring their own nephews and friends without recourse to merit. Where does this common fund come from? It is your taxes and that is why you need to act now or never.
If you are moved by the stories, I urge you to provide your signature in support of this campaign. Ghanaians studying abroad, individuals working at GETFund, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat should lookout for individuals who do not merit to study on our taxes but are doing so as a result of political manipulations and forward their names and particulars to pytsikata@yahoo.com for further action. Lets not relent in our efforts to create a just and equitable society. Education is supposed to correct the unfair privileges and under-privileges and not to perpetuate them.