Features
Academic projects to pursue
These days, I have been writing about scholarships, grades and how to apply generally to Finnish universities. I continue today along those lines with a focus on the nature of academic projects to pursue.
While I draw on official information or media sources, I rely on my own observations all these years that I have been in Finland.
Why academic projects
Academic projects form an important part of students’ learning outcomes and as a requirement in order to complete the degree programme that a student pursues.
Thus, the project is a part of the course that a student undertakes for the degree. The project which often takes place in a laboratory may be a research in a fieldwork or for science students.
Most Finnish universities place emphasis on projects. For example, the University of Helsinki sees itself as an important project partner.
It says on its website that the University faculties, units and degree programmes are encouraged to actively participate in developing teaching and education by taking part in international cooperation projects (see www.helsinki.fi/en/cooperation).
Relevant subjects
Projects are closely tied to the study subjects that a student pursues.
According to information, the most popular English-language programme in recent years is the Bachelor of Health Care (Nursing) courses.
Others are engineering and technology; business and management; computer science and information technology (IT); natural sciences and mathematics; and education and training.
Therefore, I think the education institutions and other authorities in Ghana should encourage studies in science subjects.
In my experiences, I have come across students originally from some Asian countries who have studied mostly science subjects and have moved back home to help with the skills and knowledge they have acquired abroad.
Those students that I encountered directly or whose stories I heard usually studied science subjects, mathematics and Information, Communication technology (ICT).
In that way, I can imagine how they would be in high demand even in Finland or in their country of origin, which would then be immensely beneficial to the student as well as the countries involved.
Experiences of Diaspora and return migration
The experiences of Diasporas are important here as an advantage to both the host society and the country of origin of the student, in terms of returning to their home country and imparting the skills, knowledge and experiences gained abroad.
I have read many stories about Asian countries encouraging their Diasporas to learn in Euro-American academic institutions and go back home to help develop their nations with the knowledge and skills acquired abroad.
This is something to indeed consider seriously for its advantages both to the students and their countries.
Education as a good area for cooperation
Let us also think about building a strong bond in the area of cooperation in education between Ghana and Finland. I know that the two countries have a level of cooperation in the area of education.
Even so, there are calls for increasing and strengthening of the areas of cooperation between the two countries. In this way, individual student’s quest to study abroad can be boosted if there are official arrangements backing them.
Previously, students from some Finnish universities of applied sciences visited Ghana for practical work and there was an exchange programme for teachers and rectors of Ghanaian and Finnish polytechnics, for which there have been some visits to Finland.
I do not know what the situation is after the COVID-19 situation, but I think it would be worthwhile going back to such arrangements. Thank you.
By Perpectual Crentsil
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
