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| Oh! No Legon |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jan-05 GNA |
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From the University of Ghana, Legon, comes a news item that can break the hearts of many a mature person seeking academic advancement.
Information this paper has gathered suggests that the ivory tower intends to halt the admission of General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (GCE A Level) holders for the institution’s various academic programmes.
We, like most Ghanaians, are not amused because this development would without doubt shatter the dreams of many potential students whose life-long goal is to seek knowledge at the premier academic institution in the country.
Some of these persons are already in possession of these certificates and only waiting for the opportune moment to commence the application process.
The University of Ghana, in our estimation, should be the last tertiary establishment in the country to want to adopt a measure which would in essence limit the admission of students to a certain class of Ghanaians, and this for us, is unacceptable.
After all, the mission of the tertiary institution is to churn out as many quality products as possible, their ages notwithstanding.
This path on which they intend treading would be a total about-turn from this mission.
Much as we agree with the concept that the premier academic institution has the right to embark on any policy which the authorities deem appropriate, we do not think this particular restriction would do us any good at all, since an artificial barrier has unnecessarily been created.
Many are those that have acquired their degrees and other academic certificates from this premier university at ripe ages. Why should others with similar certificates be denied the opportunity?
These personalities painstakingly attended evening and other classes toward their A Level examinations, with university education as the ultimate.
Today, this pre-varsity academic qualification is subtly being sidelined by this policy.
We think that the authorities at the ivory tower should re-think this decision, lest they inflict a collateral damage to the dreams of a large segment of the Ghanaian society.
We do not think that there should be an age limit for the acquisition of knowledge. By this new policy, there is no denying the fact that the authorities at the University of Ghana are perhaps inadvertently doing just that.
Age by this new arrangement is certainly becoming an indirect factor in the admissions policy of the university.
This anomalous arrangement should be kicked against by Ghanaians who cherish the acquisition of knowledge.
The mature students’ programme, by which a special admissions requirement is made of mature students, and the establishment of the Institute of Adult Education are wonderful feats by the premier university for which the initiators must be commended.
One may argue that the university is taking this decision because of the gradual phasing out of the GCE A Level by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in second cycle schools in place of the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate.
Be it as it may, there are mature and other students who acquired these endangered certificates a few years ago, and this they did, at painful financial and material cost.
If the university authorities insist on going ahead, which would not be in our interest, because of its discriminatory nature, we ask that a gradual approach over a considerable period of time, be used.
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