The Deputy Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Prof. Eric Opoku Mensah, has responded to claims by broadcast journalist, Bridget Otoo, that her alm mater did not equip her with skills for the job market before completion.
During an interview a few weeks ago, the popular television presenter noted that after she left GIJ, she could hardly put together a good news story for public consumption.
“I left GIJ and I couldn’t even write a single report so the certificate was rubbish,” she told GhanaWeb.
“I learnt on the job when I started to write and learned to tell a story. I learnt to be on camera, I learnt but yet I had a degree in Journalism. A degree in Communication Studies so that foundation is crap,” she added.
Bridget’s comment took many by surprise when she “rubbished” her alma mater which is rated one of the best journalism schools in Ghana.
Prof. Eric Opoku Mensah responded to the remarks expressing disappointment in Bridget’s claims. He lamented how many old students tend to focus attention on their secondary schools than their tertiary institutions.
“When you leave school, no matter how small the infrastructure was, if it becomes big, it becomes part of your pride,” reports graphic.com.gh quoted Prof. Mensah as saying.
“So some of us were saddened when we noted in the news, a few days ago, the story from Bridget Otoo, who claims to be an Alumna of GIJ, and argued that when she was here she did not get a good foundation and that the foundation she was given was ‘scrap’,” he added.
Prof Eric Opoku Mensah said this while speaking when the 2001 Year Alumni group donated some books to the institute last Friday (November 19, 2021) at the North Dzorwulu campus in Accra.
He further urged graduates of higher education institutions to constantly contribute to their alma mater.
“All of us, what we learned in school and what we have become today, it is not our school that trained us 100 percent, but the school certainly gives you a platform.
“Right now, if you pull your GIJ certificate, if even you’ve gone ahead to learn at Harvard, everything will crumble down because GIJ is the foundation, so you cannot, and all of us don’t get everything that we want to know in school.”
Prof. Mensah urged all Alumni to be proud of their school, adding that: “it is important that what you have become, or what you become should be largely credited to a school because if you take out our certificates, so far as our first-degree certificates are concerned, technically you are removing your very foundation.”
“So, I am worried that anybody will make very disparaging remarks about his or her school. It is not the best of things a person could say in public. And I think that, what we should do if we feel there are capacity issues still lacking, we should constantly contribute in one way or the other.”
