Prof. J. Anamuah-Mensah
Born in a fishing community in Cape Coast in 1947 to parents who had no formal education, Jophus Anamuah-Mensah had his elementary and secondary schooling at the Catholic Jubilee School and Ghana National College in Cape Coast. Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah is the Executive Chair of the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA), a programme that has, in collaboration with Open University of UK and over 100 African educators, produced free study units that are improving classroom practice across thirteen different countries. It is estimated that half a million teachers and their pupils are benefiting from their engagement with TESSA. During his tenure as executive chair, TESSA has won a number of awards including the Queen Elizabeth award in 2010 for its innovativeness and its impact in transforming teaching practices, and a global award, the WISE Award, from the Qatar Foundation in 2011.
Jophus is also the Director of School and Community Science and Technology Studies and the Institute for Educational Research and Innovation Studies at the University of Education, Winneba, the chair of Open Learning Exchange, an organisation dedicated to improving the quality of learning in Ghanaian schools through the use of technology and especially, the creation of an open digital education library accessible online and offline.
The education of teachers and improvement of their practices in the classroom has been a lifelong passion of Jophus. At the University of Cape Coast (UCC) where he started his academic career, and rose to become the head of the Department of Science Education, Dean of the Faculty of Education, and Pro-Vice Chancellor, he had oversight responsibility for implementing the programme for Improving the Quality of Primary Education through Research (CRIQPEG) and helped develop distance learning and PhD programmes in the Faculty of Education. He was for nine years the Principal and Vice Chancellor of University of Education, Winneba (UEW), the first university in Africa dedicated to teacher education. Also as a former Dean of Education and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, and a former Vice Chancellor of UEW, he has for several years led institutional reforms at the departmental, faculty and institutional levels. He has contributed greatly to the development of open distance learning in Ghana and chaired the committee that produced a blueprint for an open university for Ghana. Jophus was excited to work with the Early Childhood Virtual University of the University of Victoria, Canada. At UEW, he strengthened teacher education in the country through the introduction of internship and mentorship programmes, and integration of technology in education.
He established and directed the National Centre for Research into Basic Education to improve quality of basic education, set up the Centre for Educational Policy Studies, and The Department of Early Childhood Care and Development at UEW, and was the chair of the committee that formulated Ghana’s current educational reform.
In 2006, he received Ghana’s prestigious award, the Order of the Volta in recognition of his work in education. In 2009, a book on Teaching and Education was written to honour him. He is a recipient of an excellence award from the Ministry of Children and Women’s Affairs of Ghana in 2010 for his work in education and with children. He is also a recipient of an honorary doctorate award from the Open University, UK. He has received other awards including: Commonwealth University Fellow at University of Leeds; Fulbright Senior Scholar at Arizona State University West, U.S.A. Visiting professorship at Eastern Washington University, USA, Fellow of New York Academy of Sciences, Fellow of GAST, Summer Scholarship Grant of the University of British Columbia; and UNESCO scholarship for postgraduate studies.
Professor Anamuah-Mensah was a member of the international jury for the 2010 World Innovation Summit for Education. He recently co-chaired a national committee to draw up a strategy for funding the educational system in the country. He is the Chair of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, a body formed by an Act of Parliament. This body oversees the development of curriculum and assessment issues at the pre-tertiary level in the country and advices the Minister of Education on these matters. He is the Chairman of the Governing Council of two private universities: JAYEE University College and ZENITH University College.
Professor Anamuah-Mensah is an excellent researcher and has published widely in the area of learning, teacher education and indigenous knowledge systems. Jophus has been leader of the team that analyzes and produces National Reports based on Ghanaian pupils’ participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-2003, TIMSS-2007). He has been an invited keynote speaker at a number of international gatherings such as Association for Educational Assessment in Africa, African Regional Conference of Vice Chancellors, Provosts and Deans of Science, Engineering and Technology, World Bank’s Education Staff Development Program on Students Assessment in Washington, DC, and the Association of Africa Universities Conference.
He has chaired a number of high level national educational committees including : committee on sustainable funding of education in Ghana 2013, national textbook evaluation, committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, the Open University of Ghana Committee, President’s Commission for the Review of Education in Ghana, Board of Directors of GRATIS Foundation, and Committee on review of basic school science and mathematics education in Ghana, 2014.
He has also served as a member of a number of national and international boards: Trustee, Standard Chartered Science Education/ Kenneth Dadzie Trust Funds, 2002; Member, Working Group on the Management of Science and Technology in Ghana. 2001; Grants Committee of the African Forum for Children’s Literacy in Science and Technology (AFCLIST) based in South Africa; Executive committee of the International Organisation of Science and Technology Education (IOSTE); Canadian Society for the Study of Education, and American Educational Research Association, Member, TIMSS 2007 Science and Mathematics Item Review Committee; and President’s Special Initiative on Distance learning.
More recently, Jophus was engaged as a co-consultant to develop modalities for transforming the University of Ghana into a collegiate system with a focus on research. He has also been engaged as a consultant by the African Virtual University (AVU) based in Kenya to help transform it into a fully-fledged university that works in close collaboration with its 53 partner universities.
Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah is a Catholic and a recipient of Apostolic Blessings from Pope John Paul II in 2004. He is also a past president of the UCC chapter of Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International. He is married to Beatrice and the Lord has blessed them with five children and fourteen grand children.
Dated: August 2014
