Taking A Second Look At Ghana's Basic Education System

The Author

The best way to describe the Ghanaian educational system pictorially is to use the pyramid. The base of the pyramid which represent the basic education is very broad but as one ascends it, the number of students reduces.Cost of education, access to and lack of information with regards to educational opportunities and facilities, inadequate educational institutions and skewed curriculum are the realistic causes of this hurtful reality.

The basic school curriculum is exceedingly skewed to the disadvantage of potential artisans in the future. The basic education curriculum as it is now does not cater for the varied differences among pupils. It does not give room for sufficient psychomotor development and practical work. Most of the activities are cognitive and tends to strengthen memorization and instrumental learning.It does not seek to assist pupils to relate what they learn to practical daily life.

Most artisans in Ghana, whether carpenters, masons, mechanics, phone repairers, etc especially in the 'informal sector' had some form of basic education. But here is the problem; most of these artisans are good at what they do. Their choice of fields were in no means influenced by the basic education they had. Most of them were in fact either basic school drop outs or ended their education after the basic school.

These were people who could not do more of the memorization so were seen not to be academically good. It becomes mindboggling when a supposed ‘bad’ student who drops out from school because of poor academic performance goes to learn how to repair television and does it skillfully well. Some of these folks can dismantle and re-assemble mobile phones. How on earth can such a person be described as being intellectually poor? Much of the basic school curriculum provisions are abstract and some teachers do not do well to teach from concrete to abstract. It does not seek to help the pupil to identify and develop their aptitudes. The curriculum is much of the pupil being fed with information and later asked to reproduce. Little is done about mining what the pupil has within.

The curriculum does not seek to identify a pupil’s potential and develop it further. So a pupil who cannot cope with the abstract concept and intense memorization will not find the basic school safe for his or her development.The education system should be organised in such a way that at least, after the six-year primary school which should be made seven years, the pupil’s aptitudes,capabilities, strength and weaknesses are known, guided and developed.

The number and relevance of some of the subjects account for this worrying situation. When there are too many subjects relative to the age and development of the pupil, little time is allowed for practical work. Teachers, knowing there are a lot of subjects to teach, will dominate the class with teacher centered approaches and methods of teaching which will not elicit the potentials of the learners. A practical example is the situation at the lower primary ( class 1 – 3).The average age of a pupil in class one is six years. For that of class two will be seven and eight for a class three pupil. In the lower primary, the pupils are supposed to do seven examinable subjects : English Language, Mathematics, Ghanaian Language and Culture, Natural Science, Creative Arts, Information and Communication Technology and Religious and Moral Education.

Physical Education is done as a non-examinable subject. Since it is not examinable and no exercises can be presented as evidence of work output, most teachers do not take pupils through P.E. lessons .Most of these subjects are pencil and paper subjects. Creative Arts which is to bring out the diverse creative skills in pupils is reduced to drawing in exercise books. Pupils are rushed through Mathematics just because there are more subjects to be dealt with and exercises must be done as a proof of teaching. The number of subjects also affects the time allocated to the teaching and delivery of subjects which can adversely go against the effective teaching of the subject.

It will be very prudent to bring down the number of subjects at the lower primary to at most five. This will give spacious room to the practical teaching of the subjects. Possibly, English Language which should specifically focus strictly on speaking, reading and writing; Mathematics which should have three continuous periods a day to allow the teacher to patiently take pupils through basic mathematical operations and Ghanaian Language which should also have eyes on reading, writing and story-telling.Life Skills should be re-introduced to focus on basic survival skills, development of the pupil’s talents and should be very practical. Environmental and Social Studies should also be a body of learning to teach the pupil how to relate to the physical environment and the people in it.These five subjects cater for all the domains of the pupil.

When further changes are made at the upper primary to suit the pupil’s intellectual, psychological and physical development, and the curriculum structured not to just feed pupils with information and demand its reproduction from them but also elicit and develop his or her potentials. Before the pupil gets to the junior high school, such a pupil together with the teachers and parents will know the inherent capabilities. So the system will be designed in such a way that, at the junior high school all pupils will not be made to go through the same mill but special attention will be given to all manner or categories of pupils. It will be very much proper to increase the primary school from six years to seven years to allow for further development of the child.

No pupil should be deemed as not fit and unqualified for the senior high school after the basic education just because he or she did not pass the Basic Education Certificate Examination. If pupils cannot cope with the academic work in the basic school and therefore considerable number of them do not make it to the next step on the academic ladder then the entire education system must be looked at again. The picture painted simply shows a system designed to suit a section of the country’s educands and if one cannot cope with this kind of ‘memorise and reproduce’ system of education, then the system cannot accommodate him or her.

Strategic effort must be made to change this skewed education system: turning most students to rote learners especially at the basic stage to a system where each and everyone’s academic needs will be catered for and also aim at the holistic development of the learner. There should be a pictorial representation not like that of a pyramid but that of a tree where after basic education being the trunk, everybody will have a place like the tree’s branches and not be rejected because he or she could not pass the exams.

Okota-Wilson Nicholas
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