Lest We Forget: 60 Years Of Education And The Fallen Standards!!

‘An unexamined life is not worth living’. I have always loved this quote to bits. In spite of its “Socratic” embellishments, it’s much more of common sense to me. Well, philosophy mostly, is common sense wrapped in history and experience. Essentially, we need to constantly remind ourselves about the things that happened to us in the past to enable us to steer away those very things that showed us the negative sides. Even a country needs to examine its life constantly.

Back in the days, I enjoyed listening to fairytales from grandma after dinner by a bon-fire with my siblings. It was interesting listening to her because of the inspiration she offered; the stories inculcated in me my reading culture and also increased my level of understanding. Seemingly, the art of storytelling is on its death bed with the advent of new technology in communication.

While on a visit to grandma this Christmas in the village, she shared with me some of the fascinating things about education in Ghana and how far we’ve come, I really enjoyed it because she was once the headmistress of our village school in the late 70s. She asked me if I remembered my class one teacher; of course, I replied in the affirmative. In her response, she narrated how teachers were held in high esteem in the past and why everyone remembers that special teacher in primary school.

Indeed, teachers showed much interest in the development of their students at no extra cost in the past. Parents and town macho men were not the ones you would usually compare to teachers. No teacher was threatened for disciplining a child; they were the gatekeepers of the community’s code of discipline. It was beautiful how communities appreciated the effort of teachers by providing accommodation for newly posted teachers, farm produce, fish and other foodstuff. Their motivation and reverence were much desired by other professionals. Communities supported the building of schools in their locality in a form of communal labor hence limiting the cost and governments, never reneged in transferring school funds and grants early. Teachers served as mentors and role model for student, even suggested to parents when their kids should sit for common entrance and supported students career development. So where did we go wrong as a nation?

I believe the time has come for us to remember this glorious past and envision how it can sharpen today’s educational policy and the future. The world is changing and society must also change. Cyber world and Information Technologies are growing at a remarkable pace and this is the reality. Mobile phones and Tablet are banned from our schools, these gadgets are becoming too important to us as if without it, we can’t survive and that is the reality! In the advanced world, kids are using these gadgets in schools, we must rethink the use of phones and tablet to acquire knowledge or regulate it use rather than the ban. Parent use these gadgets to assist kid’s homework because they have no idea of what their kids are learning in modern times, most at times resort to internet for assistance and that’s the reality. Knowledge in the 21^st century can’t only be acquired in a four square room but anywhere and even online.

We must rethink skills development in Ghana. Various government and policy analyst talk about technical and vocational education but little attention is given. You take the budget of various government at the Ministry of Education and you’ll be amazed the provision for TVET is less than 5%. Our laboratories are not adequately equipped and in places no laboratories hence don’t even provide student with the necessary skill needed.

We must revisit our curricular. What student learn and how they learn must be changed. What employers want and what we have learnt represent a big deficit. We should engage employers in our curricular to know what they really need before they hire to reduce the graduate unemployment.

In conclusion I believe government must provide resources and adequate infrastructure to improve education and teachers must be put in their place as the glorious light of the educational system. There should be reforms in the way we do our assessment. Whatever you’re learning, we have one way of assessing and that’s written examination. We are all subjected to one way of assessment, we have to rethink of how we assess people in technical schools. At the end of the day, it’s not what you have chewed and poured that will give us work but what you can do.

Lately it’s as if when you’re born in a village, your future is defined but in the past it wasn’t like that. Most of our leaders attended ‘syto’ but lately most leaders take their kids to international schools, we must pay special attention to rural education and less privileged schools. I encourage teachers to take the students as if they were theirs and be that special person the student will always remember, for one day they’ll be rewarded. Student should always remember whose mother and father they are and take studies serious. Teaching is not a job but a God given talent and calling so let serve well. Long Live Ghana!

Bright Baah Egyir
Executive Director, Glarmorgan Institute
[email protected]