The relevance of students’ representative councils to the administration of colleges of education in Ghana

Abstract

Higher education is a vital element in human development globally. Institutions offering this form of education perform this unique role of training the human resource needs of society. Contemporary tertiary education worldwide is mostly patronised by the enthusiastic and ingenious youth aspiring to acquire knowledge and skills for the world of work. One group of such institutions in Ghana is the Colleges of Education (CoE) mandated to train teachers for first and second cycle educational institutions. In an attempt to protect their interests, student teachers formed the Students Representative Council (SRC). The existence of SRC is backed by legislation and Ghana is of no exception. Such enactments include the Colleges of Education Act 847 (2012:11) and the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, (1992 Chapter 5, Section 79) as stated by (Mills, 2015:63). All the 46 CoE in Ghana have SRC, however, their significance seem to have been relegated to the background. Students’ participation in decision-making is often viewed as problematic to administrators and other stakeholders. They are often perceived as minors, immature, making unrealistic demands and lacking in expertise and technical knowledge needed in running institutions (Kosgei et al, 2017:2), simply expected to do what they are told without questioning. It is against this background that the researcher sought to explore the relevance of the SRCs to the administration of CoE in Ghana. This study explored a phenomenon, hence, was located in the interpretivist paradigm. It employed qualitative method (interviews) with office bearers of the SRCs and administrators of the four purposively selected CoE in Ghana. Observation was adopted for triangulation of data from the two categories of respondents. The study revealed that although the existence of SRC is of enormous importance, it’s operations sometimes conflict with college authorities due to mistrust and imposition of unilateral decisions. The college authorities on the other hand often perceive student leadership as spearheading activities which hinder the smooth running of the institutions. The study recommended information sharing, seminars and workshops for both student leaders and college authorities to create an atmosphere of trust, collegiality and partnership for peaceful co-existence.