A Quality Assurance Lecturer at the Ho Technical University, Dr Kofi Ashiboe-Mensah, has urged lecturers to commit themselves to their work to produce all-rounded students for the job market.

He said: “Lecturers must put more work for the students to pass and pass well in every aspect of their lives when it comes to academic work.”

He stated that; “There are a lot of factors that have contributed to the poor performances of the students these days, but our research work has found out that about 70 per cent of the work for students’ achievement rate academically comes from the lecturers,” he stated.

Dr Ashiboe-Mensah gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at a two-day workshop for Business School lecturers at the Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU) at Tesano in Accra.

The workshop was on Peer Review Mechanism to Improve Teaching and Assessment Skills and its objective was to enhance the credibility of teachers’ preparedness for academic work, especially in the teaching and learning process.

The participants were taken through instructional materials review, moderation of examination questions and marking scheme, academic audit, and teaching observation.

Giving a background, the Lecturer said faculty development contributed to the overall quality of education, student engagement and success, and reputation and competitiveness, hence the workshop to enhance the pedagogical skills of faculty members, develop innovative and effective teaching methods, and create engaging learning experiences for students.

Dr Ashiboe-Mensah who was the resource person for the workshop said economic issues of teachers may have diverted their attention to do other things to get more money, stating that; “however at the end of the day everything that we do as lecturers must go to the benefit of the students.”

He asked lecturers to engage the students, ask them questions, let them feel the lessons belonged to them, saying; “but if the lecturer takes the lessons to his or her chest the student becomes a passive learner – they will be waiting for you to come and give it to them before they would learn.

“As lecturers let us adopt ways that students can be engaged in their lessons, once we do that, they become fine with us.

“Now I know that parents, students themselves, government and teachers – these are the four areas that must hammer on students’ performance, but the teacher is the ultimate because we are talking about academic work.”

Professor Robert Ebo Hinson, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the GCTU in an opening address said the workshop had come at an opportune time to address some of the issues in the academic work of lecturers.

He stated that; “having policies is one thing, and understanding how you conduct yourself in such a manner that you don’t contravene them is another” and expressed gratitude to the resource person for his effort. He urged the participants to pay serious attention to the topics so they could apply them to improve teaching and learning among the students.