ENGINEERING IN GHANA: Hear Me Out

How do we save the Ghanaian tertiary engineering education?

Blame shedding in our education system takes the center stage, when we should rather be more concerned about moving forward. Authorities feel they survived a worse situation in their days, so the current generation must take responsibility for their lives during and after school. On the other side, modern students think it’s the failure of the system that causes their underdevelopment in the various fields. In the overview, one might side with a particular view. However, it is best we consider both sides and give birth to a third one that solves the deficiencies in the others.

In this piece, we’ll rather consider the factors we, students, can control to improve engineering in the various tertiaries. From my experience in the university, I can confirm the major institutions which offer engineering face three common problems. In fact, we have normalized them in the student environments and the results are the stagnant development in the sector and the entire educational system. 

Problems With Our Engineering Education

The 3 Major Problems With The Ghanaian Engineering Education

1. Degree As The Ultimate, Not The Skills

Every student goes to the university in search of the Degree, while the key priority should be getting what the certificate rather proves: one has those skills. With this mindset, they are convinced to study for tests only because those exercises are the barriers they see between the honors and themselves. They would rather focus on that and postpone the skill acquisition to the after-school life.

This is why students can be distracted any other time except the exams periods. We cannot fault them, since society believes the end justifies the means and our education rewards greatly on such moments. The consequences on Engineering are huge because the subject, itself, is theory combo practical dependent. One has to know the theories, know how they apply to reality, and implement them to solve the various problems. Any misplaced step will render the entire process incomplete.

2. Discontinuous Flow Of Engineering Courses.

The current model is well-planned in the abstract, but the actual implementation shows otherwise. On paper, the courses are structured and interdependent on one another as one moves up the ranks. However, reality depicts they are independent and separate. This is because students are only required to study the semester’s works and little effort is made to ensure they really understand those in the previous term.

We can now understand why Ghanaian students in various programmes, especially engineering, seem lost and frustrated. They cannot appreciate the studies because they find it difficult to follow and connect their courses from level 100 to final year. If the field is not naturally related, like medicine, the complications become more. How do we expect them to piece the almost-separated parts together and facilitate a massive development in engineering?

3. Separation of Routine Life From Studies

Everything changes when one realizes and consents to a particular career. The moment a student decides to study engineering, he or she must understand that the action implies a lifetime contract or commitment to the field. In this view, they develop a profound interest in it and work hard to be good at what they do. Most people only see this truth after they have completed university and landed a job. 

Since engineering is not like medicine – where it is easy to visualize and relate studies due to their common applications in everyday practices-, students must build their lives around the programme, just like in the case of professional workers. It is no ordinary career, so we must treat it as such. Unfortunately, the current situation is far from that when it comes to Ghanaian engineering students.

Engineering “Hear Me Out” Proposal

Identifying and understanding the problems can help us form the right solutions. “Hear me out” is what I call my proposal, which comprises measures that can take control of the said problems and guide students in the right direction, particularly in engineering. 

Continuous Flow 

First, we need to fill all those study gaps in the stretch from Year 1 to Year 4. Right from the start, engineering students should understand all the courses are related to one another and geared towards the bigger picture of developing them into excellent engineers. This measure ensures each student knows how relevant certain topics will be to the dream career, instead of the usual go-with-the-flow attitude. Even better, they’ll know how to map the courses to the various fields of engineering.

Constant Revision

The next important step should be how students can keep the theories on their fingertips. In addition to the desire to learn the semester works, they must see the charge in revising lessons from previous semesters. It is logic that these studies build upon the knowledge gained from past terms, so it is rather a good choice to have them stay afresh in the memory. Besides, they will need them in the real world. Students can do that on their own or in groups, which does not matter if the right results are attained.

More Practical Sessions 

An ideal engineering model prefers the right balance between classroom studies and practical works to achieve an overall impact. In our case, our overreliance on the theoretical base is due to the unavailability of practical avenues. Students don’t experience majority of the topics, so they consider them abstract and move on.

To compensate for this defect, we can use workable measures that professionals develop throughout careers. The next two are typical examples.

Daily discussion 

In the real world, one essential way engineers learn is through interactions. When they face a problem, they share ideas, discuss them, and provide the best possible solution. In this same way, students must spark conversations on engineering subjects, on the daily basis, both the theories and practicals. By so doing, they find diverse views on complex topics, apply virtually things they study, and keep up with the demands (and trends) of the field.

Research 

This tool is always useful in every aspect of life. Maybe it is because the process enhances the participants in several relevant areas or the fact that its end results give improvements over the current states. If research culture is active for all in institutions, students will do more in their fields. For engineering, the practice possesses premier power required for advancement. Many inventions came as a result of the exploitation and curiosity. Research is the best bet to fast track progress in every country; engineering deals with the application of these findings. Now, we can see why there cannot be any real deal without this tool.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_research

The template looks simple, but it will take effort to change our system. Unfortunately, there is no other way.

You can join VIEWngineering as we attempt to improve engineering in our tertiary institutions. https://viewknust.com/network-for-students/