Ghana's Educational System, Is There Hope ?

The Author

Many countries try as much as possible to put their educational system on a stratum that has the predilection to train, mould and reconstruct the minds of the young and the old alike towards national development.

Many focused-countries have given specific importance to 'certain education'. Countries like Singapore and Taiwan are focused on Science, Mathematics and Technology whiles others like us are more concern about general education(learning everything from Anthropology to Zoology).

Finland foristance focuses on teacher education, science and business training. These specifications make them concentrate on a task at a time and are able to measure the progress of education.

These skewed educational system does not mean they have neglected other forms of educating the young but much emphasis, attention and resources are channelled along that route.

Today the U.S has an all round educational system that focuses on everything from A to Z because they are developed but they never started like that. They started by concentrating on Science and Technology and that is why we have schools like MIT, RIT, Virginia Tech and the likes.

Down here in Africa, we have taken education all at once, doing all at the same time. Committing equal attention to each facet of education. This form of development does not provide a clear environment for supervision, measurement and evaluation.

In this regards, we use only passing of examinations by students as the major measure of progress in our educational system and teacher performance elsewhere it is not like that.

Our educational system is said to have thrived when there are total changes in behavior. When musicians and songwriters write songs to nurture minds, for reflection, shape behaviour and also for relaxation.

Education was seen in the past as good because even then, music was for good character building and deep reflection. That is why men like Nana Ampadu, Amakye Dede etc will forever be remembered.

In this age of progress, emergence of IT, huge budget and better research in education, we have produce men and women whose songs only corrupt and disrupt creative thinking and good morals.

We have failed. On major online news portals like aljazeera.com , bbc.com , cnn.com etc there are buttons provided for science, technology(a page where news on ground breaking inventions are recorded for learning) before even entertainment and politics but the Ghanaian major news websites does not have buttons for education talk less of science and technology.

It clearly tells you that in this country education is not our priority.

We give attention to entertainment and politics than education.

We must blame ourselves for the current developments in the country. We lack empathy, love, respect and patriotism because we are not concern. Our system creates more ignorant men than there are enlightened ones.

Our media has always been politics, sports, Entertainment and rubbish. Therefore, I can describe our system as a young head on an old shoulders.

Anas's investigations has always targeted politicians and football people but not people in academia and how they use their pens to draw on the national kitty without stopgap for progress.

There is more corruption in Ghana Education Service than there is in GFA however we are oblivious to that fact because as a nation our attention is on other things than education.

Education is the single commodity that has the spell to bind us all around a common good.

I will therefore suggest that, civil society groups, politicians, the media and the public must wage serious war to bring an educational reforms that tends to develop the society we want than create a platform for miscreants.

God save us.
Boateng Samuel Clinton
(Student: UEW-K)
[email protected]