Renowned educationist Mr. Nimo Dua has made a passionate appeal to the government to urgently address the growing backlog of graduates from the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), University of Cape Coast (UCC), and University for Development Studies (UDS) who remain unemployed or unposted years after completing their studies.
According to Mr. Nimo, the backlog of graduates, especially in the education sector, poses a serious threat to national development and must be treated as a matter of priority. He emphasized that the situation is not only affecting the livelihoods of thousands of graduates but also creating a void in the delivery of quality education across the country.
Speaking in an interview with the press, Mr. Nimo said, “It is unfortunate that every year we churn out highly trained graduates in education, yet we are unable to absorb them into the teaching force due to budgetary constraints and lack of planning.” He specifically pointed to graduates from UEW, UCC, and UDS—Ghana’s leading teacher-training institutions—who have remained at home for over five years without being posted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) or recruited by the government.
Mr. Nimo warned that the continuous delay in posting or employing these graduates may lead to a waste of national resources invested in their training, as well as cause psychological and economic hardship to the affected individuals and their families. He called on the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance to collaborate and implement a sustainable recruitment plan that prioritizes the timely engagement of education graduates to fill the numerous vacancies in public basic and secondary schools.
“The solution is not far-fetched,” he said. “We must align our teacher-training output with real-time employment planning. These young professionals are ready to serve—let’s not let bureaucracy crush their future.”
Mr. Nimo also urged political leaders, particularly H.E. John Dramani Mahama and the current administration, to consider the issue as a national crisis and commit to resolving it in their manifestos and policy frameworks.
Some affected graduates who spoke on condition of anonymity shared emotional stories of being unemployed despite having degrees in education. One UEW graduate revealed that she completed her course in 2022 and has yet to be posted, surviving only through petty trading.
Mr. Nimo concluded by stating that if the government does not move swiftly to absorb the backlog, the consequences could include rising youth unemployment, brain drain, and a continued decline in the quality of basic education in underserved regions.
