Gambia wants to work with sub-region on quality

In its efforts to develop its tertiary education sector, the Gambia is turning to higher education centres in the West Africa sub-region to help build its capacity with quality assurance, the Gambia Minister of Higher Education Badara Joof has said in Accra, Ghana.

At a meeting with officials of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Joof said he had a high regard for Ghana’s higher institutions and knew that, together with others, they would be able to provide the assistance required in the sector.

“We are looking at institutions in the sub-region with capacity in quality assurance to help us build on what we have started,” he said.

Joof, who led a delegation to study the higher education sector in Ghana, said there is a need to recalibrate higher institutions in Africa to start a new trend of innovation and research, as has happened in other parts of the world.

“Society is ruled by science, technology and engineering,” he said.

Ghana’s achievements admirable

He said his admiration for what Ghana has achieved in the tertiary sector was part of the reason why he and his delegation were in the country – “to see how others have done it and [we] would like to [use] what they have found out to make informed decisions”.

Stating that quality assurance must be relevant, Joof said it was necessary for universities on the continent to find out how their institutions can break new ground. For this reason, the Association of African Universities must motivate and introduce changes in the sector that would help create an impact on society.

He said the African intellectual is facing a dilemma on how to become relevant, and likened that individual to “someone who has his wallet in one hand but is at the same time looking for it”.

“For this reason, Africa needs a new crop of intellectuals with a new mindset to redefine our development DNA. This means looking at ourselves to find out what is relevant to our development needs to bring out what will make a difference in the lives of the people,” Joof said.

He said there was no need to blame colonialism after more than 60 years of independence and, for this reason, higher institutions all over Africa need to “develop and collaborate in the context of bilateralism”.

New curriculum

In a short brief, the director-general of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Mohammed Salifu, said the GTEC is a new entity that was created by law to play a different role. The commission was created through the merger of the National Commission on Tertiary Education and the National Accreditation Board.

The GTEC has now assumed a regulatory role, Salifu said, adding that, “a new scheme and operational structure of the merger to bring about efficiency will be rolled out in August”.

He said the country now had more than 250 tertiary institutions, including 14 traditional universities and technical universities that are to offer qualifications beyond the Higher National Diploma to BTech.

He said a new curriculum has been introduced in the teacher training colleges to upgrade them to offer degrees as part of the national teaching standard upgrade from diploma to degree.

Salifu promised the Gambian delegation that, with many years of experience, the GTEC was prepared to help in their country’s quest to achieve excellence in the tertiary sector.

Currently, he said, the country does not have programmes driven by national development, but plans are being made to change that with the establishment of the National Research Fund with 1% of GDP.

Researchers whose work is based on national development will be able to apply for grants.

Salifu said the government intends to set up 15 regional centres of excellence which go beyond what the World Bank has started because the government wants to use these centres as “drivers for development by inculcating the sub-cultural excellence in the country”.