Teachers' Platform: Are universities giving us a raw deal?

The main purpose of higher learning institutions, primarily universities, is to have a two-pronged approach in the search of knowledge to develop the highest degree of creative thought and to contribute to the solutions to concrete needs of society. Higher learning institution relevant to the African child should be that is directed towards; economic and social progress within the framework of sustainable development at the service of people and their environment, commitment to endogenous development through the solid education of human resources; the scientific and technological growth of its community and to a variable and vulnerable economy in the national context and development aimed at improving the living conditions not simply to the demand but which is capable of transforming the demand depending upon the goals imposed by the desirable future. Institutions that create and foster scientific research, innovation, invention and aesthetic creativity; institutions that strengthen social, scientific and economic development, freedom, dignity and authentic democracy would be the higher training institutions that we dream to realise; universities of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary quality but not bodies for awarding degrees which are devoid of meaning. Presently, we realise that, hardly are our graduates depicting fundamental credentials towards the minimum required standards of an ideal university graduate elsewhere. When governments realised that public institutions were not doing adequately enough to achieve their educational goals, they opted for privatisation of education to attract individual investors to invest in education so that they could train citizens alongside public institutions. Unfortunately, even private universities are not doing enough justice to our society. Precisely, they operate in a utilitarian model which reduces them to only glorified training schools. On 23rd May, 2014, the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), a body which regulates higher education in the East African Community’s five countries – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – released a report on the long-held concerns among employers that most graduates are not fully prepared for the job market. At least half of graduates produced by East African universities are ‘half-baked’ for the job market. The matter here is that, the regulatory authorities, after accreditation, do not do enough to closely monitor the pedagogical activities taking place in universities yet they should have demanded for these reports from time to time and side periodical visits. Universities therefore, tend to ignore the quality aspect in their operations which breeds injurious major non-conformities in the academic process. We realise offices in universities are labelled as quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) but these offices are not fully performing their required professional obligations to ensure full adherence to the prescribed standards either out of vague job descriptions or under empowered to enable them effectively execute their duties or you may find QA activities are executed but the QC are left out, which absolutely creates deficiencies in the quality tracking process. Achieving complete success in the academic process requires both QA and QC to be dually brought into play. If we only apply QA, then it is only the operational process that we litmus test but the delivered solution (outcome) itself is never actually quality checked - QC. This makes the quality evaluation process incomplete. Through graduate tracer studies, universities would be in position to obtain basic information on the status of their graduates, graduates’ and employers’ perspectives of their academic programs offered by the institution, course content and knowledge gained, facilities and the impact of teaching and learning process which helps to improve the service quality of an institution and check the viability of the curriculum offered and further enhance the national education system as a whole. Obilan Abubakar Umar is an education consultant at Okobi Information Center and Lecturer, School of Education, Mt. Kenya University (MKU)