Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Unforgivably Ghanaian - Selling/Buying Forms


I recently received an email from a young relative in Ghana about the process of applying to the University system in Ghana:


".......the cost for the University of Ghana, Legon form is 110 Ghana cedis (about $55 US Dollars) and that of KNUST is 125 Ghana cedis. (about $65 US Dollars)". 


That's a total of about $120 US Dollars. What exactly is the student paying for. Is this an application fee or the actual cost of the form? 


By the way, $120 is an entire month's salary for a public school teacher in most of the country.  


Why in 2013 is the Ministry of Education still selling physical paper forms for university applicants. 


Why does the Ghana university system have computer science departments? Can they not simply put forms online or have students fill out their application forms on their phone (which everybody has including my grandmother in the village)?