Universities, Research Institutions and National Development

THIS YEAR marked Ghana's fifty years of independence. The year-long celebration still continues in pump and pageantry style.

The nation that once was bustling with affluence and strong budget surplus today finds itself in the outskirt of metropolis of a strong and vibrant economy. The nation that could have moved up with speed of light in its developmental strides right from 1957 today crawls like the tortoise.

After year fifty years, it is important that we stop to take inventory and to know where the nation is heading to.

Education has been established by mankind to help find solution to the needs of mankind. Universities are seen as the agents of change. For many universities it has been the case that they have been funded by national governments to meet national needs for skilled manpower and to provide a national research and technological development capacity.

Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah did well in putting up the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast. The motivation for the establishment of the KNUST was to train African scientists to be able to match up with what the Ivey Leagues (Harvard, M.I.T, Yale, Princeton, etc) and Oxford and Cambridge universities were producing.

The vision of Dr Kwame Nkrumah did not end there. He established the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) was also established with the prospect in researching and procuring nuclear energy for the purpose of electricity generation among others. All these were conceived in the last 50 years.

The warmth glow of the ideas that Dr. Nkrumah had for the nation had been been aborted by successive governments.

Lack of funding to our universities and research institutions has only put Ghana out of the highway of national development. Today our research institutions and universities have been left in the cold to fend for themselves. The consequences of this are that we have to import everything into the country.

Let's take for example research institutions like NASA and laboratories in the USA. These organizations do receive substantial funding from the state to carry on research. In contemporary Ghana the government of NPP, which subscribes to capitalism, might also be tempted to believe that private sector must fund universities and research institutions.

I am not trying to say that private funding is not needed for such purposes but it is the primary responsibility of every government to make sure that its funding for universities and research institutions is high on its agenda. Universal primary education is needed but we do not build a strong and a vibrant economy with primary school graduates.

It is really expensive to fund tertiary education and research institution. For example a breakthrough in particular research can occur more than 20 years after the commencement. It takes the commitment of the part of the funding organization (say the government) to sustain the funding and also the persistence on the researchers in the laboratory to keep on moving amid disappointment.

Now in this world, nothing comes off by chance. Somebody somewhere in a particular laboratory must research into and make recommendations to industries for its adoption.

Mobile phones, computers, USB flash discs etc were invented after a great deal of research. Nothing is dropped from heaven like manna.

Today, insufficient funding for our universities and research institutions have brought Ghana to the point of 'standstillism' Ghana as nation today does not appreciate technology. We prefer to do things the way they were done before dinosaurs got perished from the earth. Sometimes I ask myself this question: what prevents the Ghana Police and DVLA from having the database of all vehicle and drivers information in an electronic database for the purpose of fighting crime and easy retrieval?

THE WAY FORWARD

First and foremost, the state must give extra substantial funding to our universities and research institutions. It is true that we do lack more research fellows in our schools because of the meagre payment that they receive for their research. Some years ago I met a researcher and he told me point blank that research does not put money on his table.

To some extent I do agree with him because you do not expect someone to spend all this precious time in field or the laboratory and just to be given US $100 for his work.

There is also the need for our research institutions and universities to go back into our dust gathered bookshelves in the university and identify all the projects which people have written over years and see to the further development into the next stage.

It is believed that more successful ideas are locked up in our universities and research centre. Why? I do not pretend to have answer to this question.

Secondly, Ghana must identify its priority and meets it. For now there can be no gain saying that our priority is investment in science and technology. Without this the abundance of natural resources would amount to nothing. You need technology even to drill our oil. You need technology to make maximum use of the sun. You need technology to curb tax and revenue evasion.

Thirdly, our universities and research institutions must identify Ghana's pressing needs and try to meet them. This is the time for our universities to look critically into their programmes and all those that seem to be out of place be given the exit card.

Today every nation is meeting its own needs. Our universities and research institutions must lead the way. Japan knows well that it sits on earthquake zone so all their buildings are made to resist any seismic vibration on the earth surface. We cannot expect the Japanese government to help to find cure to malaria or say sickle cell anaemia. Bob Marley once said that he who knows it feels it.

Fourthly, there must be proper symbiosis relationship between the gown and town. Our universities and research institutions must not operate in isolation. A proper partnership between these two entities is enough to change our destiny.

For example, Ghana Water Company Limited should be supporting Biochemistry/Chemistry Departments in our universities. Mining companies on the other hand should also be interested programmes that helps their industry and must commit funds to help it at such. The mechanics at Suame Magazine and Kokompe must not be left out. We need to help them to fine tune the work.

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