Private legal practitioner and Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has defended the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) in its ongoing crackdown on the misuse of academic titles and qualifications.
In a Facebook post, Mr. Bentil praised the commission’s stance, describing it as an essential intervention to safeguard the integrity of Ghana’s academic and professional space. “Someone has to do what GTEC is doing.
Puerile obsession with unearned titles and degrees is obscene and taints us all as a people. Better to err on the side of probity and integrity! GTEC is a necessary response to this mess before it degenerates further,” he stated.
His comments come at a time when GTEC has faced significant backlash for naming individuals, including high-ranking officials, accused of parading academic designations they have not legitimately acquired.
The latest controversy involves Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah, who was cited by the commission for allegedly misusing the title “Professor.”
Her legal representatives responded sharply, rejecting GTEC’s approach. In a letter, they described the commission’s actions as “abrasive, unnecessarily combative, and disparaging.”
The lawyers further criticized GTEC’s decision to address its correspondence directly to the Chief of Staff, arguing that it was “procedurally irregular and suggestive of an attempt to escalate a matter of academic interpretation into a political controversy
