Editor's comment: Train more university teaching staff
Mar 04, 2008
RESEARCH shows that most universities - both public and private, are terribly under-staffed. The main resource a tertiary, as indeed any other institution has, are its teachers.
RESEARCH shows that most universities - both public and private, are terribly under-staffed. The main resource a tertiary, as indeed any other institution has, are its teachers.
Books, IT equipment and other resources are only useful inasfar as they supplement what the teacher gives to the learner.
So the fact that the universities have few teaching staff, in the face of rising numbers of students qualifying for university entry, spells doom for higher education in the country.
Universities have a standard ratio of 1:15; 1:20 taken as good; 1:25 is acceptable and 1:40 can be improved. But universities have failed to meet this. Besides, most of the staff even at government-funded universities are junior and mid-level lecturers. The Government needs to aid staff development as an urgent measure to curb this trend.
As the saying goes, that a bad animal comes from a bad bush; employers are likely to be wary of taking on products of ill-staffed institutions. Private university proprietors and founding bodies must also take staff development seriously, as they do physical infrastructure and other facilities.
The practice of employing itinerant lecturers should also be reviewed, because an unsettled teacher cannot do much for students.
Books, IT equipment and other resources are only useful inasfar as they supplement what the teacher gives to the learner.
So the fact that the universities have few teaching staff, in the face of rising numbers of students qualifying for university entry, spells doom for higher education in the country.
Universities have a standard ratio of 1:15; 1:20 taken as good; 1:25 is acceptable and 1:40 can be improved. But universities have failed to meet this. Besides, most of the staff even at government-funded universities are junior and mid-level lecturers. The Government needs to aid staff development as an urgent measure to curb this trend.
As the saying goes, that a bad animal comes from a bad bush; employers are likely to be wary of taking on products of ill-staffed institutions. Private university proprietors and founding bodies must also take staff development seriously, as they do physical infrastructure and other facilities.
The practice of employing itinerant lecturers should also be reviewed, because an unsettled teacher cannot do much for students.