By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 14, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The revelation by the Herald newspaper that the crisis raging over the government's non-payment of Research and Book Allowance (RBA/BRA) incentives to university and polytechnic tutors and lecturers is due to the humongous and wasteful costs of stacking onto the payment roll of categories of workers who do not qualify for such incentives, ought to be critically examined and promptly corrected (See "Shocking! Cleaners, Watchmen, Drivers Collecting Research Allowance" The Herald/ Ghanaweb.com 8/14/14).

The first step towards policy rectification and revision ought to begin with the immediate establishment of a parliamentary enquiry into this epic scandal, in particular the history of how such gross act of impropriety and criminality came about, as well as the architects who are responsible for this at once bizarre and chaotic state of affairs. In the meantime, the Ministry of Education could go ahead and make up a tentative list strictly composed of university lecturers and polytechnic tutors who directly qualify for the payment of such allowances, with a view towards expanding the list in due course to encompass other non-classroom educators, intellectuals and scholars who may also be qualified for such professional incentives.

And here, it may be significantly recalled that scarcely a year ago, the Founding-President of the IMANI-Ghana think-tank, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, publicly opined for the record that much of the financial crisis besetting the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had to do with the apparently willful lack of efficient management of our nation's resources by executive personnel entrusted with the same. Back then, as I vividly recall, Mr. Cudjoe bitterly complained about bloated government payrolls that had been so bloated by the illegal tacking of ghost names onto civil-service payrolls.

He had recently been named to membership of a government-sponsored economic-restructuring committee that had been charged with the streamlining of the mode of appropriation of limited state financial and monetary resources. The IMANI-Ghana president also raised the not-so-subtle alarm regarding the fact that some powerful and influential party-machine hacks were vigorously stalling any progressive measures being proposed by some members of the Ho-established committee to bring fiscal discipline to bear on the dynamics of governance in the country. Mr. Cudjoe would be shortly forced by frustration to resign his membership on the afore-alluded committee.

I also vividly recall admonishing President Mahama, in one of my columns, to pay sedulous attention to the very constructive counsel of Mr. Cudjoe, have the latter possibly re-invited to membership of the said committee and promptly issue a personal but public apology to the young man. Now, Mr. Cudjoe appears to have been more than vindicated. I also remember suggesting back then that were Mr. Mahama really serious about streamlining the nation's economy, he would establish an even more powerful steering committee and invite the IMANI-Ghana boss to head the same.

Among the comments that my article received was that my being passionately sympathetic to the political and ideological cause of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) readily rendered my views suspect, and also meant that I was deliberately and mischievously up to misguiding the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress in order to guarantee the return to power of the NPP. Well, the reality of the matter is that inasmuch as I firmly believe the NPP to be far more capable of administering the affairs of the country, nevertheless, I have absolutely no vested interest vis-a-vis which of the two major parties gets to run the government. My one and sole objective is to ensure, through frank examination and critical observation of our national policies, that the right things are done by whoever happens to be at the helm of our national affairs.

At any rate, I have already extensively detailed what qualifies to be classified as pedagogy-oriented research elsewhere, and therefore do not find it necessary to reprise the same here. Suffice it, however, to observe here again, at least in passing, that a lot of research goes into the preparation of lectures and lesson plans and ought to be recognized and envisaged as such.

Then also conference hosting and/or organization and attendance also qualify as being integral to professional development. In Ghana, I suppose the latter critical aspect of pedagogy is called "Refresher Courses." Knowledge and teaching are veritable living organisms that are in constant need of being fed and refreshed. And these come in the form of professional development. In other words, research and publishing are only a small part of what instructional academics do.

Finally, while teachers at all levels of instruction have a democratic right to embark on industial action for better working conditions, nevertheless, making a constant and perennial avocation of strikes significantly hurts the intellectual, cultural and technological advancement of the country. But, of course, there are two sides to every coin - reckless governance of the sort presently prevailing in the country may well have to blame for the raging crisis in the tertiary academy.

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