This Thing We Call Education - A New Era Or?

I saw a summary of the vetting for the Education Minister on CitiFM and I am asking myself a good many questions. I know many NPP party faithfuls will come out guns-blazing, that he couldn't possibly say all he needs to say at a vetting - well, he didn't also give a window view of what to expect under him either. The honourable designate Minister should be answering questions around these:

1. How do our educational systems revert to focus on teaching us "how to think" instead of "what to think?" Changing the examination board or system without changing the content is zero work done;

2. How do we inspire research and entrepreneurship with intentional academia-industry partnerships, to ensure our tertiary students are industry-ready to go into work as relevant hands or CREATE industries themselves as a result of getting skilled in practical entrepreneurship - surely we can see that "breeding" graduates to get employed is like "rearing cattle and taking them straight to slaughter houses" - and yet we are not being proactive about finding solutions?;

3. The truth is some will always have extraordinary natural IQs at child levels - how do we separate them and push their intellectual limits above the ordinary with bespoke curriculum, rather than lowering them by mixing them with everybody else? In case we don't realise they are gifts God gives to every country - they are not to be mixed with everybody else.

4. How do we equip teachers to start using scientifically proven teaching methods known to exponentially enhance learning absorption, creativity and critical reasonin, self-expression etc?

5. Currently our educational infrastructures are simply - buildings. How do we transform them to become learning and teaching tools so that continuous learning happens even in the absence of teaching staff etc.

6. If we claim we are open for business - how does education transform our graduates to make them the best human capital that international businesses can look at and say we want to relocate to Ghana because their graduates have superior quality?

Sorry but feeding children in schools is NOT an educational priority in our day and age. And teaching Ghanaian history though commendable, does NOT position the next generation in the future. This is what the new age education is all about - the ability of countries to position their students and their thinking in the future, before everyone else gets there. We may not lead the world but I don't see any AMBITION to even lead Africa.

This is the ministry that defines our country's future in every respect - as a matter of fact, give any Critical Thinker the roadmap of its education Ministry and he/she should be able to tell you where and what that country is likely to be 5, 10, 15, or 20 years down the line. So I ask: Where exactly is the THRUST? Where exactly is the BIG focus?

By Marricke Kofi Gane (A Non-spectating Citizen)