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Of Useless Leaders and Useless Degrees

Posted by: Benjamin Onuorah

Two months ago, I graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a "useless" degree. I graduated with a master's degree in English, with specialisation in Creative Writing (Fiction).

This degree may be considered useless in Ghana because it won't get me a job.
Three years ago, when I wanted to take a Creative Writing course at Harvard University, I read the Senior Lecturer's bio, and his academic qualification was only a bachelor's degree. Yes, a first-degree holder is a senior lecturer at Harvard.
In Ghana, you cannot teach with a first degree or a master's degree. So my master's degree cannot secure me a job at the university, where creative writing is taught as a course.

Before I went back to school, some well-meaning academic and professional mentors advised that I consider pursuing a PhD in journalism or communication studies. With my wealth of practical experience, they said, I would be a hot cake in that field.

I said no to all of them because I didn't have the passion for that. My truest passion is in writing, not even journalism.

Years ago, I had turned down an offer from a friend and businessman who had convinced me to read law, for he said I would make a good lawyer. He offered to fund my legal education.

Nope. I admire lawyers, but I do not have the passion for law.
Writing does not pay, they told me. But I was adamant. And that's what I went in for.
Am I looking forward to being employed with my creative writing degree?
No!
Is my degree useless because, as the immediate past education minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, puts it, it does not prepare me for the job market?
That's ignorance impersonating expertise.

With this degree, and more importantly, the knowledge I have gained, I don't need anybody to employ me. I can write for a living. I can write my own books and act as a ghost writer for others, as I have done in the past.

They say writing will not make me rich, but is wealth not relative? I don't have an appetite for luxury vehicles and homes. A modestly decent livelihood and the opportunity to do what I love
Dr Adutwum, who wants to be president, should not blame university courses for the hordes of unemployable graduates that teem the nation.

The problem is not so much about the "useless" courses. It has more to do with the not-so-useful leaders, if useless leaders might be considered too harsh.
Our education system, which Dr Adutwum presided over, is poorly funded and poorly managed. The result? Poorly trained minds, barely literate enough to look for jobs. The outliers and sharp ones don't get opportunities to put their talent and knowledge to good use in Ghana.

Dr Adutwum claims we need more engineers, but what opportunities have been created for our engineers to thrive in Ghana? Our brilliant engineers, who graduate from KNUST and other universities, are doing great things outside Ghana. In the United States and elsewhere, where strong leadership provides for their expertise, Ghana's engineers are building world-class systems, while our leaders would rather award shady contracts to businesses like SML and others.

(Last year, I made a post on Ghana's engineers doing great things in the United States.)
Even our medical doctors are fleeing in droves.

In a country where development is initiated with the same shabbiness that Agradaa runs her church, one wonders how a former education minister who wants to be president can think that Development Studies is a useless course.
In this country, we berate those who study fine arts, philosophy, and the classics. Students of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana have been described as studying "Dondology" because we claim they go to learn how to play the "dondo."

Elsewhere, people in the arts are among the richest.
Besides, we need thinkers. A continent that cannot boast of many philosophers whose ideas rule the world in leadership and science, must not think that education is all about producing for the job market.

The very idea that a course must prepare a student for employment is problematic. Elsewhere, education prepares students not only to be employed but also to create employment opportunities. With the right education, students must aim to START SOMETHING after leaving school.

By: Manasseh Azure Awuni

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