I Brought Semester Education To Ghana – Prof Ameyaw Akumfi
The Former Minister of Education, former MP for Techiman South, former DG of GES,former Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi has revealed that he is the architect of the current Semester education System in the country’s universities. The humble but eloquent professor emphasized that it was through his initiative and instrumentality the nation’s public universities run that system.
Speaking to this reporter in his office he indicated that he brought this system from America to be adopted and practiced in Ghana. “I went to the U S A for my sabbatical leave and visited some universities and found the practice there. On my arrival, l decided to approach my Vice Chancellor Prof Kwesi Dickson to convince him to acquiesce to this novelty. Initially the Professor didn’t want to give in” , he said. Prof Ameyaw Akumfi stated he had to press on to win the Chancellor to buy into the concept. There and then after lengthy laborious discussions, the latter lowered his resistance on the idea.
He said that the Chancellor resisted because he feared the Academic Board of the University would kick against this novelty as a result of their reluctance to such a sudden change . Their fear was that the new concept would create academic discomfiture and chaos. However, the Chancellor after careful assessment asked him to write a proposal to that effect which he did. Now after this hard battle, the academic board after thorough discussion and study gave in to the new concept. After this acceptance, l was tasked to rewrite the whole programs of the university which l did. I wrote the new programs and new GPA system as well as the contact hours. “Let me say here it wasn’t an easy task but l did it singlehandedly. This was 1987 academic year.
The erudite professor told this reporter that after the first and second semesters results were good, the university never looked back ; lo and behold it became the selected system from then on. Prof Ameyaw Akumfi further stated that he wanted to sell the idea to the other public universities but he faced challenges especially University of Ghana and KNUST as they couldn’t come to terms with the new system. He was invited by them to explain the concept to them which he did but burauecracy and red- tapeism torpedoed that brilliant concept. But after carefully studying the Cape Coast novelty , the other universities couldn’t help but to adopt the concept Nicodemously copied and used it and are still using it.
The man who has seen it all in the arena of education said there’s nothing wrong with the current education system provided the right systems are adopted and infrastructure is improved. He called on politicians not to play with the future of the nation’s education especially the TVET education. He argued that when that sector is properly situated, Ghana will go very far.
Source: Nana Poku
