Ghana's education system - a timebomb waiting to explode?

With the new school term a few weeks old, we thought it appropriate to put the education system in Ghana under the microscope and explain why it is a time bomb that is waiting to explode.

It is widely acknowledged that education is a key component in nation building and national development.

Without it we are not going to produce the next generation of farmers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, scientists, technocrats etc. who ALL play key roles in the development and socio-economic life of a nation.

It is this understanding of the importance education plays in the life of a nation that Ghana's first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah invested heavily in the country's educational mechanisms.

Having the consciousness of mind to overstand the crucial dimension education plays in national development, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah built numerous basic schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities.

To compliment the above, he also established many teacher training and vocational colleges.

However, the most important aspect of Kwame Nkrumah's educational policy was the national curriculum.

The national curriculum was devised to suit the cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs of the country.

It is this ideological approach to education as espoused by Osagyefo that made Ghana's education system the finest in Afrika and the envy of the world.

After Kwame Nkrumah was removed from power in 1966 subsequent leaders failed to understand the ideological importance of education leading to the situation that prevails today – an education system in crisis, {with} dilapidated infrastructure, {hitherto} with poorly remunerated and de-motivated teachers, a curricula that does not address the fundamental cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs of the country and the creation of a two-tier system of education whereby the order of the day is one's ability to pay inordinate school fess in Euros, pounds or US dollars.

It is this witting or unwitting form of educational apartheid that is extremely alarming that is creating a time bomb that is waiting to explode in our very eyes.

In days of yore a businessman's child and a factory worker's child both received the same quality and standard of education. Also both had the equal opportunity to reach the zenith of educational achievement.

Today as a direct consequence of the lack of investment in {the} public schools and with the advent of the “international school(s)”, a two tier system of education has been established whereby the businessman's child is in the position to receive a first class education whilst the factory worker's child is destined to receive an inferior quality and standard of education.

It is totally unacceptable that in Ghana today education has somewhat become a privilege rather than a right, whereby a minority of children receive a first class education purely based on the financial endowment of their parents, whilst the vast majority of children receive a substandard education from the state school system that has been starved of the necessary resources needed to boost the educational attainment of pupils – and it is no surprise that in 2011 more than 50% of pupils especially in these state schools failed their BECE.

This two tier system of education cannot and should not be allowed to prevail as it has serious consequences for the country.

This could manifest itself in that those children from more affluent backgrounds who can afford to go to the better equipped international schools, some of which charge upwards of US$3,000 a term ending up with an array of educational opportunities whilst those children {who make up the vast majority} whose parents are not financially endowed, face poor educational opportunities hence dire career prospects and possible social exclusion that in itself has its own consequences.

This is a nightmare scenario that is bad for national cohesion and national development and is something the powers that be need to address urgently.

The next bone of contention and crucially is the flawed national curriculum.

The desired purpose of a national curriculum is to promote and subsequently meet the specific cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs and wants of a nation.

This ideology is precisely what Dr. Kwame Nkrumah understood to a tee and this is why during Osagyefo's tenure as president, Ghana produced the finest teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists, lawyers' etc. in Afrika and were able to even surpass their western counterparts.

In Ghana today the national curriculum hardly promotes the above ideology and what we witness is a hybrid of German, British, French, Ghanaian, American and Arabic curricula which creates enormous confusion in the child and at the same time infuses an inferiority complex.

It also does nothing to inculcate into the child the spirit of nationalism and pride in being Ghanaian and Afrikan.

Unless as a nation we take active steps to alter or preferably Afrikanize the national curriculum to suit our specific cultural, social, technological, political and economic needs and wants, and more importantly neutralize the educational apartheid that currently exists and make education more inclusive and a right rather than a privilege, Ghana WILL NEVER make the socio-economic strides it seeks to attain and could witness great social tribulations.