Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Education and Member of Parliament for the Bosomtwe Constituency, claims that many universities across the nation offer education programs that do not turn out graduates who are qualified for employment.
The Education Minister mentioned a few wasteful university courses, including the Diploma in Education, Sanitation Education, and Development Education, while speaking at an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) conference.
"I am aware that there are significant issues with the courses that are offered in our universities, and we are working to address them. Adutwum stated at the event that thousands of students were being trained for positions that did not exist.
According to him, the Ministry of Education will soon consult with the administrations of the country's public universities to determine the best way to concentrate on programs that can ensure graduates of tertiary institutions will find employment.
"We are working with the universities, but I believe our attention should be on programs that are pertinent to the student in question and to the country as a whole. The Minister emphasized that public universities shouldn't train students for non-teaching positions.
In a related development, the Minister of Education, Dr. Adutwum, has stated that his office will meet with colleges of education affiliated universities at the appropriate time to discuss a troubling situation that is causing the country's unemployment rate to rise.
Osei Yaw Adutwum claimed in an interview that it was difficult for them to be hired into service because of the large number of graduates from public universities, including the University of Education.
Only graduates of colleges of education are required to be hired by the Ghana Education Service, but this has created a problem because universities are now graduating more teachers, making it difficult to hire teachers.
The central government, he claimed, is making every effort to ensure that the majority of newly graduated teachers from colleges of education and other universities are hired into service in order to support the free senior high school policy.
The problem now is that there are too many graduate teachers in the system, according to Adutwum. "The government is doing well in terms of teacher recruitment. In the first year of double track over 10,000 university teachers were recruited," he said.
The Minister for Education stated that the upcoming meeting with the administration of affiliated universities' colleges of education will allow Ghana to export qualified teachers to nations in need of teachers to staff their classrooms.
The United Kingdom (UK) Minister for Education requested that we supply them with unemployed Science teachers, and that is something the Ministry of Education is working on, according to Hon. Yaw Osei.