University of Ghana post-coronavirus lockdown policy was a failed experiment

If you happen to know the anthem of the University of Ghana; it describes the school as a fountain of learning. If you happen to know the official motto of the University of Ghana; it seeks to proceed with integrity(integrity precedamus).

If you happen to know the mission statement of the University of Ghana; it seeks to be a world-class research Institute. But if you happen to be a student at the University of Ghana now(post covid-19 lockdown) you will come to realize that all these supposed attributes of the school are a sham.

You will even think of the school system as a syndicate, for at this epoch, the University of Ghana has sacrificed quality for quantity and in a race to beat time. This article seeks to expose the University's very act of sacrificing integrity to accommodate growing pressure instead of sanctioning appropriate long-lasting solutions.

The sudden change

It was around March 2020 that the University of Ghana suspended semester activities ahead of the nationwide school suspension following a reported case indicating that two students tested positive for the coronavirus. As a way of damage control, the University decided to resume school With strictly online interaction except for few departments.

So Sakai and Zoom became the major online platform for teaching, learning, and assessment. This sudden structural change was accompanied by pertinent problems that needed to be resolved; lecturers and students' familiarity with these platforms, reliability of these platforms, the credibility of assessments through these platforms, etcetera.

In spite of these unresolved problems, the University of Ghana went on ahead to complete the 2020 semester with online interaction.

A new semester with the national approval of the school came with the sudden news of the University re-introducing the online teaching method as well as a modular system where different levels are going to take turns to complete the semester to reduce crowding.

Level 100 and 400(February to March) and later level 200 and 300( April to May). In addition, two sudden structural changes reduced semester contact range from almost four months to just two months( ie.13 weeks to only six weeks)in other to operate on the modular system successfully.

PROBLEMS

compromise on teaching method

By operating strictly online for selected departments, the University of Ghana has compromised on the traditional methods by which teaching and learning take place. As hard as this may seem, given the tireless efforts by some lecturers to ensure equal or better service to students.

By the fact that students cannot have healthy interaction with lecturers, teaching has not been quality. There are problems with network stability during online lecture sections, sudden log out of some lecturers due to technical challenges, students unable to join some online classes due to the app capacity, and other petty distractions that reduce the quality of learning online.


This has forced a number of lecturers to rather record videos and audios before their students can access information on their study course.

Compromise on quality studies

The essential aspect of university education is the ability to know some knowledge, grasp some concepts, evaluate some stance, and build intellectual capacity thereon by internalizing, but the structural changes operated currently at the University of Ghana now do not permit such quality of the study.

Traditionally, courses that take 13 weeks to complete are been squeezed into 6 weeks, without a proportionate change in course content and load. Students on average register six courses, which will imply that students are using one week to complete each course per study time.

With this difficulty, lecturers are rushing through course content, students are pressured to read more within a small space of time.

This amount to chew and pour for the best students and pressure on the worse student. Students are likely to perform abysmally under such conditions. By these facts, University of Ghana students going through these semesters with little desire to study their course but with the sole objective of passing these courses by any means necessary.

Online assessments are not credible.

As a student and a writer, I must confess that by assessment online, I have cheaply passed courses that I should have done a proper study to really pass.

The reality at the moment is that the more assessment is done online, the less credible University of Ghana grading system becomes. This is because online assessment does not guarantee independent work.

Students take turns in helping each other complete their tests, and quizzes. Students write the assignments for their fellow students. In fact, some graduates, upper levels colleagues, and nonstudents are the ones completing assignments for students to gain their grades.

Some persons are making money off of charging students to complete assignments on their behalf; Thus, students will earn a certificate for a course they never studied in fact should such a system be given permanence.

Producing worse graduates

The new changes at the University of Ghana are too much of a big jump without corresponding infrastructure to check the demerits. By forcing students to do the impossible in six weeks and a less quality lecture process, students are forced to indulge in shameful practices that the online assessment method makes room for.

Obviously, if the University decides to strictly assessed students on site then it wouldn't have any justification for refusing to teach students on site. But the truth becomes bear that the University is overlooking all these obvious substandard teaching, learning, and assessment. But this will rather go a long way to affect its credibility as a University to award academic achievements in this country by international standards.

The number of students the school is admitting is in fact beyond its infrastructural capacity. When the pandemic became well known, one would have thought that the University will rather reduce the number of admissions this time but it did otherwise, with the intention of rolling out an online/ modular system. But the proper scrutiny as to Its effect on the quality of education was ignored.

The University is in a race to expand and beat time, but this act is sacrificing integrity by bringing out the worse in students. It will produce graduates who passed courses they never studied. At the moment, just know that the University of Ghana is compromised.

There has been resistance among the students front and some senior members against these structural changes which have forced the university to revert the two-year duration for such a system, but the main question remains, how does the University of Ghana undo the harm and the continuous harm such system has produced.

How do you compensate for the damages caused to studies and poor performances in this period? By the urgent need to revert the school calendar and the strict online method of learning, we can describe the post-Covid lockdown structural changes as a failed experiment.

But it must be recognized that as a world-class institution, you only damage your reputation by implementing policies that damages can not be undone. It a hard lesson the University of Ghana must come to learn; students are not mere apparatus for experiments.

Policies must be well thought out and gradual if the School authorities value the life and interest of students.