Home » Togo Niger Ghana » Africa, spring 1999 part IV

Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part IV

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:30:15

Displayed times (last time: )

where teachers do
at least show up for class, are far more advanced. This should not seem surprising, for
Confucian culture emphasizes education, and China is a substantially wealthier country
than Ghana and can better afford to fund higher education.

A few days later I visit the campus of Ghana?s other university, the University of Cape
Coast. The Faculty of Education is located on this campus rather than at Legon, so it is
here that any opportunities for me would lie. Almost everywhere in the world, education
is the least prestigious faculty at a university, perhaps one reason it is relegated to Ghana?s
second campus rather than placed in the capital. The scholarship undertaken in education
colleges is mostly bottom fishing, using ideas that float into the intellectual sludge from
other disciplines. Nevertheless, education is where I find myself situated, for better or for
worse. The Cape Coast campus, in contrast with Legon, is full of crumbling buildings. I
find Education, which was off a dark, dank alley. I locate the office and the staff shows
me the course catalog. I am impressed with the range of courses available. The masters
program, which had several hundred students, offers the types of courses that are found in
the best schools of education in American and European universities (notably missing at
Hong Kong University). The Ghana unit offers courses in the politics, economics and
anthropology of education, none of which are offered in the mediocre education schools I
am familiar with. I am then directed to the campus personnel office where I pick up
employment application forms. I am told to fill out all four copies of the form, no carbons
provided, and to submit three passport-sized photos. I decide to delay this hoop-jumping
until I undertake a more in-depth investigation.

Knowing that first impressions (e.g., ...