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Stop Meddling With Ghana’s Educational System

Feature Article Stop Meddling With Ghanas Educational System
SEP 10, 2017 LISTEN

“Go to your local school. You can see the progress in the buildings, in the computers and the results. But it is not good enough. Not for Britain; not for the modern world. Now I want us to lift our ambitions. We will continue to put more money into our schools, and complete the reforms we began so that in time we have a system of independent, self-governing state schools, with fair funding and fair admissions, but driven above all by the needs of pupils, wishes of parents and the dynamism of our best teachers” --- Tony Blair

My journey started in one of the remotest villages in the Eastern Region of Ghana. As brilliant as I was, my reading and writing skills was washed down by the teachers who handled me in lower and early upper primary. My teachers would go to farms, come to school late and cane those of us who couldn’t make it to assembly. A situation I grew to comprehend is distasteful, inhuman and contradicts the ethics of professionalism.

The problem in our education sector is not the duration of stay in school; SHS being four or three years, Teachers licensed or not; Students and pupils using mobile phones or not; Education free or not. It is mainly these two: Commitment of teachers and successive governments stop laying clueless and unfavourable policies for Teachers.

Today, the duration of stay in school is changed, another political party wins elections and the first thing to do is to revert it (toying with the system). Inasmuch as the educational act clearly stated that there should be free and compulsory Basic education for every school going child, Ghana and the system we run here is not ready for that. I disagree vehemently on the free SHS policy. Parents are to pay their wards fees and government provides the Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs); motivate teachers and provide the basic educational materials for the schools as well as build the schools. Few weeks for the policy to kick, we are experiencing dramatic frustrations. From my perspective, this free SHS policy, if not looked from a political lens, is a disaster in the making for the Schools. There are hundreds of schools in this country which lack classrooms and need more. Teachers are in shortage and basic Teaching materials are not in place but we are quick to make schooling free in such environments.

On the need for students to use mobile phones, Ghana Education policy does not allow or permits students or pupils to use mobile phones in schools for whatsoever reason-they are confiscated and damaged.

One problem we are having with young adolescents is how they regulate what they see from others. Smart phones have come to help make parts of life easier but here, it has become a bane to some of us. Complying with this directive is going to increase indiscipline in our schools and our homes. There are things students, do with phones that unless, one chances on a phone from a student, no one will understand where I’m coming from. Student’s phones are decorated with pornographic movies, naked pictures of themselves and others, vile discussions of their teachers and friends and all sorts of immoral discussions that do not aid in building the psychology of the child. Allowing students to use phones in schools is just like asking the mouse to sleep in same room with the cat- one is disadvantaged.

I happened to peruse through a student’s WhatsApp discussions and based on what I saw, I cannot endorse students to use phones is schools and no stakeholder has to. The young boy requests for pictures from girls and proposes to six and more girls in row on his phone at the expense of his books. They text in a sort of writing that takes minutes to understand. The other group stays on phones overnight discussing unnecessary matters.

Although smart phones come with more educative applications that can assist students and teachers to harness their potentials and merge into the global world, the role these phones play among our Ghanaian children in schools is more disastrous.

What the schools need are committed teachers and successive governments stop laying unfavourable policies for Teachers. I can bet on this that, some teachers in our schools are no longer committed. Even on teachers Facebook and WhatsApp group platforms, they discuss footballers and how much they make; politicians and unsavoury discussions about themselves and other teachers. They hardly discuss performance of their students and the way forward. Development of the child is no longer the role of some of our teachers. Some teachers to extent leak exam questions to pupils or students during examinations. These are few but denigrating things the 21st century teacher does.

Notwithstanding, there are other teachers in the classroom who will stop at nothing than correcting and shaping their pupils or students to become better than they are. There are teachers who dedicate all their resources in making the classroom child understands wrong from right.

It is time the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service wake up to see the schools as parents and not politicians. We need to wake and build our schools devoid of political differences or human faces. Right the wrongs and move on. It is time all Educational bodies have a national dialogue to address issues of education and draw roadmaps to help rescue the falling standard of Ghana’s Education. This brings in mind again, Mr. Blair’s words “………we have a system of independent, self-governing state schools, with fair funding and fair admissions, but driven above all by the needs of pupils, wishes of parents and the dynamism of our best teachers”

Wisdom Bonuedi

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