Our Dysfunctional Educational System And Errant Parents’ Misdeeds

Is any literate person unaware that functional educational system in a country is an incentive to that country’s economic, technological, and democratic advancement? As Universities are centers of academic excellence, places for academic and scientific researches, and bastion of moral values, they assist governments in their developmental initiatives. So no country that is keen on achieving industrial and technological development trifles with its educational sector. Good Universities, periodically, churn out knowledgeable, skilled, and well-behaved individuals, who can competently work in companies, armed forces, police force, civil service, and so on.

Here, in the past, products of our Universities were sought by foreign employers of labor as they could more than hold their own in their areas of specialization. Then, our first generation Universities were archetypal Universities that were as good as Universities in Europe and America.

Sadly, over the years, since the 2000s, the quality of education obtainable in our schools has continued to decrease. It should be noted that the reign and rulership of the Jackboots and Brass hats in Ghana in the 1980s and 1990s caused the mass exodus of Ghana’s best brains to Europe and America. They are better remunerated in foreign countries. So those countries’ gain became our loss and pain.

The rot as well as the dysfunctionality in our educational sector affects all strata of our educational system, starting from the Kindergarten to the tertiary level. Now, people with secondary school education, which they acquired in the 1960s and 1970s, are very knowledgeable and discuss issues intelligently. In contrast, today, some secondary school students do not know the name of their regional Minister, not to talk of them following global events. That is a proof of their ignorance; and an indication that we are in an era of philistinism. A pupil with poor primary school education would struggle to cope with the rigors and academic demands of secondary schools. But many parents do not help the cause of their children with their despicable, shameful and contemptible deeds.

Instead of instilling the virtues of sedulousness , diligence, and love of learning into their children, some rich and seemingly educated parents did offer monetary inducements to their children’s teachers in the primary and secondary schools in order that they would be promoted to the next class after they had flunked promotion examinations. And many teachers in the primary and post- primary schools in the country are semi-literate people, who need urgent re-training and further education so as to put them at the cutting edge of their teaching profession.

Governments at all levels in Ghana, however, neglect the nagging issues troubling our educational systems. Does the Central Government’s yearly budgetary allocation meet the UNESCO stipulated benchmark? Lack of fund for the execution of educational initiatives and projects and the day-to- day running of public schools stall the growth of education in Ghana.

Today, many government-owned schools’ buildings are in decrepit state, with their roofs blown off by thunder storm and their walls falling down. Many schools in rural areas do not have seats for school children. And instructional materials are seldom provided for them, too. Can learning take place in an environment such as that? Not surprisingly, many regions in the country perform abysmally in such examinations as SSCE or WASSCE and NABTEX.

That’s why special centers have sprung up in many regions across Ghana. After registering students in their schools for such examinations as SSCE or WASSCE at an exorbitant price, they will compromise the positive morality-code of invigilators and supervisors with monetary inducements so that they can permit surrogate candidates and mercenaries to assist the students in solving questions in the examination halls. Today, the excellent SSCE or WASSCE certificates, which some young people brandish and take great pride in, are not true reflections of their mental abilities.

Parents are to blame partly for the malaise, which has afflicted our educational system. In their desperation to ensure that their children study law, pharmacy or medicine, they buy SSCE or WASSCE and University admissions for them. And, they impose their own choices of course on their children when their children do not have aptitude and natural abilities for studying those courses. These misinformed parents are disdainful of courses in the humanities.

Perhaps, they are unaware that Chimamanda Adiche, the globally acclaimed writer, dropped out of Medical school and studied Political Science, Communication, and literary studies. Today, she has won strings of awards for her writings. And she is in the running to win the noble prize for literature someday. Had she persisted in studying medicine to earn a degree in Medical science, she would have got it. But, would she be a competent Medical Doctor, who takes great delight and pleasure in doing her job? And it is unlikely that she would attain global prominence as a Medical Doctor. Chimamanda Adiche was recently inducted into the American Academy of Science and Arts, a great recognition for the bluestocking.

In contrast to her, many young Ghanaians whose parents coaxed and coerced into studying courses for which they have no aptitude and liking are struggling to graduate from Universities. When they couldn’t pass their courses, they would join cult groups and use their membership of the groups to brow-beat their lecturers into awarding them high grades in the courses. Others offer either sex or money to lecturers in exchange for high grades in their courses. Many parents, through their indulgence, inadvertently, encouraged their children to become incorrigible philistines.

Today, one wonders whether Universities are still the citadel of learning, bastion of positive morality, and centers of academic and scientific researches. Medical schools do conduct researches into the nature and causes of diseases in order to find cures for them. And Engineering Departments in schools ought to invent things that are engineering feats and wonders. More so, the Political Science Departments in our universities should proffer solutions to our peculiar electoral issues. But sadly, campuses across Ghana have been transformed to grounds, where cultism breed and fester, and where scantily dressed ladies strut and display their sexual wares.

It is pertinent and imperative for government to address our educational issues holistically, as a functional educational system is bedrock for national development. Corporate organizations should be co-opted into partnering with governments at different levels to uplift our declining standards of education.

And taking millions of out-of- school children away from the streets and placing them in schools should agitate the minds of our lawmakers, governors, and the President. A teenager without a cultivated mind is vulnerable to being recruited into the social deviance or other chaotic groups.

By; [email protected]
Kumasi -Ashanti