BRIDGING THE YAWNING GAP BETWEEN ACADEMIC CERTIFICATES AND REALITY: A CRITICAL PEDAGOGICAL REVIEW

You probably have heard time and again that the standard of educations in Ghana has fallen to the abyss. You may equally have been told umpteenth times about the fundamental disconnect between academic certificates and the realities on today.s job market. Yes, I have also heard them many times and they have almost become a cliché for me. In fact, I had almost dismissed the idea of writing about the standard of education in Ghana until I recently heard about the Unemployed Graduates. Association of Ghana (UGAG).

When I first heard of the existence of the group, I asked myself if unemployed graduates in Ghana may possibly have members that are unemployable (without any prejudice to UGAG). The truth is that issues of education and employment keep coming up in our national sociopolitical discourses. The fact that the issues keep cropping up strongly means that they are unavoidable component of our development agenda and the fact that they are unavoidable perhaps means we must collectively find answers/solutions to them. The purpose of this article is to take a critical x-ray of Ghana.s education at both policy planning and implementation levels with particular emphasis on teaching and learning process (curriculum planning). I must state however, that, for want of space, this article may not be exhaustive.

It is incontrovertibly factual that a yawning gap exists today between academic certificates and the realities of the job market in Ghana. There is evidence aplenty that some of the syllabuses in use in our schools today are certainly out of tune with trends of contemporary society. Most of the Lecturers in our universities are still teaching with notes that were used in generations ago in selfish disregard for generational gap and exigencies of the 21st century. Educators/lecturers provide long-winding elucidations and historical accounts on topics completely alien to the existential experience of students—they can hardly relate to these topics. The common practice within academia today is the worshiping at the shrines of centuries old Aristotles, Platos, Socrates and the rest without regard to whether their views on issues still hold today or are extraneous to our national development agenda. As Paulo Freire usefully asserts in his Pedagogy of the oppressed, education is suffering from narration sickness. In fact, Ghanaian students have almost become “containers” and “information receptacles” to be filled by lecturers. This is what Freire calls “banking concept of education”—where the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filling and storing the deposits provided by lecturers through their narrations.

The students are required by convention to mechanically memorize the narrated content to be poured verbatim during examination. Indeed, examination and grades have become the primary preoccupation of students, to the extent that some university students only attend two lectures in a semester: the first and the last lecture because these are periods where examination tips (apoo) are expected to be revealed to them. This unfortunate phenomenon has led to a regimented learning behaviour of students (chew, pour, pass and forget) which has also culminated in stifling students' flexibility, individuality, and imagination.

The obvious result is the rampant and shameful seizure of toilets, locking up of NHIS offices and the increasing number of youth rampages and unemployment in the country in recent times. Yes, the reason is simple; they have been trained not to create but to demand jobs from Government. Our system of education is bereft of creativity, transformation and practicality. All the systems of education developed after independence only pander to the whims and fancies of political parties (leaders) and their short-term vote-wining manifestoes. The back and forth partisan arguments that have characterized the 3-year or 4-year Senior High School programme epitomize the crux of my assertion. Yes, let it be repeated that all the educational systems Ghana has had over the past four decades have regrettably failed to yield maximum results because the planners designed them with their own personal and parochial partisan political view of reality exclusively in sight without regard for the interest and needs of the people to whom the programmes were directed. To help stem the trend, I suggest the following solutions:

In my considered opinion, three fundamental elements must drive our educational system, school curriculum, or teaching strategies to allow students achieve their fullest potentials for national development. First, teachers/lecturers should serve as guide rather than as a paragon of knowledge. When a teacher.s role is to provide direction and access to information rather than acting as the primary source of information, the students. quest for knowledge is adequately and wholly fulfilled as they learn to actively find answers to their questions. Teachers should provide opportunities, time and space for students to engage in practical and hands-on activities to create avenue for self-discovery. According to Freire, education must begin with finding solution to the teacher-student contradiction by reconciling the poles of contradiction so that both the teacher and the students see themselves teachers and students simultaneously. It should be noted that the more our systems of education regard students as adaptable and manageable beings, whose role it is to be passive amanuenses in classrooms, the less likely they are to develop critical consciousness necessary to transform their world. They grow to accept their passive role and adapt to the world as it is—their creative power tragically gives way to credulity and a fragmented view of reality.

Second, our educational system or school curriculum should be fashioned in such a manner that it allows individual learner.s passion and natural curiosity to direct his/her learning and all academic pursuits. It is vitally important to develop a curriculum that typifies both the interest of students and the long-term national development agenda. To this end, policy and curriculum planning and development should be broadly conceptualized to include major stakeholders such as students, teachers, educationists and civil society organizations. Given the opportunity for input, students dialogically generate ideas and set goals that reflect their natural capabilities and interests in life. It is sad to note that, in our part of the world, educational policies are mostly planned and handed down by the dominant minority (politicians) at the top to the majority (implementers/teachers, parents, other stakeholders) who are left with no option than to adapt to the purposes and intent of which the dominant minority prescribe for them. This top-down approach of curriculum planning only serves the theory and practice of Fereire.s concept of banking education. It is a piteous spectacle that some professors in our universities, because of the obvious portmanteau and fill-in questions, ask their students not to read beyond lecture notes or prescribed chapters; after all the questions in exams may not demand any evidence of comprehensive research. As Freire observes, verbalistic lessons, reading requirements, the method for evaluating “knowledge,” the distance between the teacher and the taught, the criteria for promotion are all ready-to-wear approach which serves to obviate critical thinking. When curriculum encourages and allows for dialogue; and revolves around the interests of learners, it fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn.

Finally, our system of education should promote tolerance and respect for all things and all people. This can occur in an open and democratic school environment where the practice of sharing ideas and judicious approach to discipline are constantly encouraged. Teachers should not turn themselves into Frankenstein monsters in classrooms, such that students tremble at their threatening voices. Professors and lecturers should desist from the practice of taking pride in failing students, particularly students who oppose their views. It is a common reality on our campuses to hear lecturers needlessly boasting that nobody gets grade „A. in their papers. In other jurisdictions where education is seen as a tool for developing future generation; where democratic culture is part and parcel of classroom activities, lecturers rather feel ashamed and let down when students are unable to get good grades or fail their papers. In an environment where teachers. views always reign supreme and are regarded as sacrosanct, students may be hesitant in discussing their problems in an open, transparent and democratic manner. It is important that the school curriculum encourages students to have respect for teachers, peers and themselves especially during class meetings. Learners will become responsible citizens and patriotic members of our community if we consciously and collectively adopt positive discipline, democratic values and respect for all in our school curriculum.

Unless conscious and concerted efforts to arrest this unsavoury situation is scaled up drastically, the damage already done will be obviously insignificant compared with what lies ahead.

Education should not be left in the hands of the dominant minority (politicians) whose parochial and ephemeral interest may not resonate with our national interest. We should all help to build a better future for our youth and motherland.

Adjei Baffour Stephen
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Skype: nanabaffour24