Take Home Assignment

Academic Writing UGRC110 Lecturer: Mr. Brian Akrong Name: Atitsogbui, Seko Adzo ID: 10391112

Question: There is a growing lack of interest in the study of social sciences and languages in the universities. What factors account for this trend and what is your personal perspective concerning this view?

It is July again, and completing secondary school students rush for a place in Ghanas most prestigious universities. The most toughly contested courses are the medical science course, the engineering course and the business administration course. Following closely behind are the other sciences: earth, biological and then mathematics. However and more recently, the social sciences are left for those who dare to take them, those with poorer grade levels or those who are unfortunate and do not get their course of choice. This phenomenon has been on the increase of late and is fueled by many factors. One major propelling factor is the level of development of a country, in this case Ghana. Despite recent infrastructural developments Ghana still has more improvements to make in the health and transport sectors and is identified as a developing country. As a result there is a great demand for doctors and engineers and other fundamental nation-building careers. In light of this students race to do these courses in the universities because they are assured of direct and immediate employment when they complete the tertiary level. To add to this is the high rate of unemployment in the country frustrating many young men and women who stay unemployed even up to six years after gaining their degrees. The Ghanaian economy has been saddled with growing unemployment and underemployment, widening income disparity and poverty incidence in spite of the fairly decent annual average growth recorded since 1984Aryeetey & Baah-Boateng,2007 p16 . The fear of ended up like this motivates students to fight for the courses that will see them employed immediately after school. One student notes, I see them struggling, constantly writing letters and attending interviews only to be rejected and fall back to square one. So I chose Medicine. Even if doctors are having salary problems these days, I think its better to be employed with a poor salary than to sit in the house with a useless degree, wasting away. The social science professions, however, are more specialised and demand for

them is not high in developing countries. Psychologists, for example are patronized more in developed countries than developing countries, thus those doing social sciences are less likely to be employed immediately. This accounts for the growing lack of interests in them. Another reason behind this trend is the state of the Ghanaian economy. Ghana has been enjoying heavy investments into its economy from both the West and the East. For example China China's trade investment in Ghanas economy in the first three quarters of this year amounted to $2.5 billion. It is expected that total trade this year will leap to $3.5 billion, representing an increase of 50 per cent over the previous years (www.Ghanaweb.com , 2011). In addition to this the recent discovery of oil has made business in Ghana more lucrative. As a result students have been greatly encouraged to enter the Business sector for a chance to be successful in Ghanas promising and growing economy. This has been further fueled by the success stories of Albert Ocran of Combert Impressions and Professor Stephen Adei former Rector of GIMPA, who are leading names in the business world. Their stories and encouragement have led to the springing up of more business inclined schools and increasing competitiveness for positions in these business schools. Examples of these are IPS and University of Ghana Business School. These schools have been overwhelmed with requests for admissions and as a result lecture rooms tend to be overcrowded with students straining to hear their lecturers words. Thus the Social Science and Modern Language courses tend to be neglected. The increasing power and influence of technology also is attributed to this phenomenon. In the past before the industrial revolution careers like Law and History were seen as the respectable and were given high esteem whilst scientists were viewed as odd and were often social outcasts. However the times have changed and technological advancements have made Science and Technology one of the leading drivers of economies around the world. Korea, the 15th largest

Economy of the world, for instance South Korea makes $1.9 billion as a result of their technological inventions and equipment in the automobile sector. In addition to this success of companies like Microsoft and Apple also create a great incentive for students. For example . The success of the technological industry attracts many students to do science and technology courses instead of the social sciences. Peoples perceptions of the social science and modern language courses also dissuade students from pursuing them at a tertiary level. For the most part people believe that jobs cannot be acquired with majority of the social science and modern languages, and rather that these have to be combined with other courses to be effective. There is a growing popularity of the Business and Law combination and the Business and Modern Language combination. These combinations also take a long time with the Ghanaian system requiring you to do 5 years with the language course before the four years required to get a degree in business admin. I believe in all that this phenomenon signifies a changing of the times. Social Sciences and Modern Languages have their place in society but the world is not as it was a decade ago and this lack of interest reflects this. References: Aryeetey, E & Baah-Boateng, W (2007) Growth, investment and employment in Ghana, Switzerland: International Labour Office www.Ghanaweb.com www.wikipedia.com