Government gives public universities clearance to recruit 6,000 staff

Public universities across the country have been given financial clearance to recruit 6,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.

This was announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at a meeting with Vice-Chancellors at the Jubilee House.

The 6,000 teaching and non-teaching staff are expected to meet the academic demands of the Universities due to the large numbers of students, following the introduction of the free SHS policy.

Nana Akufo Addo said issues of infrastructure will also be dealt with.

“The Minister of Finance, very resourceful man has given financial clearance for you to recruit over 6000 staff across the board to address this capacity constraint that we all know about.

“The comment that has been made about the Vice-Chancellor about the need for us to look at what we can do to enhance infrastructure. Part of that has led to the approval that I and the government have given for a learning management system for tertiary institutions to facilitate e-learning.”

The lack of financial clearance to recruit lecturers and other staff for various tertiary institutions in the country has been a major challenge for the smooth running of these institutions.

The dire situation, which has persisted for the past few years, forced the then Mahama government in 2016, to give clearance for the recruitment of over 1,000 staff for the various institutions across the country.

Despite the intervention, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) found earlier in 2017, that the 2,676 academic staff in all the eight public universities, was inadequate to teach and supervise the academic work of more than 128,326 students.

The situation, it observed, was affecting the quality of education amidst concerns that teachers are being asked to do more work for less reward — pushing down the attractiveness of school-level teaching as a career.

The problem had compelled the Vice-Chancellors of Ghana (VCG) to on several occasions call on the government to give financial and technical clearance for the recruitment of more lecturers into public universities to cater for the potential influx of students in subsequent years.