Our System Of Education As One Of The Major Causes Of Unemployment In Ghana

Ghana’s population has a youthful structure with the youth, constituting about one out of every four of the population (Censuses of Ghana, 2000). According to theGhana Statistical Service, about 1,250,913 persons 15 years and older are estimated to be unemployed. Of this number, about 57.2 percent or 714,916 are females while 42.8 percent or 535,997 are males(Ghana Statistical Service, 2015:56). This makes Ghana’s youth unemployment rate one of the highest in the world which is going to be a serious threat to the state in the near future.Moreover,the issue of Graduates unemployment has become very high that there are no enough jobs in the system to absorb them all.There is also the perception from the public that most graduates in Ghana lack certain traits that enhance performance on the job market. This is because of the form of education in Ghana.

Our educational system is one of the major causes of unemployment in Ghana. Our educational system such as the courses which are not relevant to current demands for labour; inadequate practical training during course of study; the way we teach and learn; indiscipline and unprofessional teachers.

This system produces empty students who come out as empty graduates to an empty economy. Our form of education is in such a way that it makes students become dependent or reliant to the system. The system or form of education which instead of polishing, adding, developing and opening up the minds of students and their talents to become good thinkers, policy makers, decision maker and creative leaders, rather do not make them think but make them dependent or reliant to the system. The system forces them to throw away their ideas and way of thinking which they have been blessed with to adopt the ideas of other people.

When this system or way of education forces them to throw away their ideas or ways of thinking to adopt the ideas of people, it makes it very difficult for many students to adopt the ideas of other people which most teachers see them as weak student. They are seen as weak students because they cannot relate or connect their ideas to the ideas of what he or she have been forced to adopt which also leads to lack of proper understanding. There is lack of understanding because what he or she is been forced to learn or adopt are full of theories without any proper life experience to link it up to what he or she has studied. He or she becomes more confused because the way he or she thinks, see or analyse things is different from the way he is been forced to. For this reason, the student will have no other choice than to do the CHEW AND POUR method. The chew and pour method is a method where by a student learnonly for the purpose of passing an exams.

Students adopt the chew and pourmethod because of lack of understanding. They don’t really understand what is been taught at school. The educational system is full of theories without any proper practical to link the knowledge or what is been taught to what is there in the real life. Even most teachers themselves don’t understand what they teach. You will ask a teacher a question about a topic he or she had taught in class which you don’t understand for him to respond to you that he also didn’t understand this particular topic when he was at your level so just go and learn to pass. That is how our educational system is; we only learn to pass and don’t learn to apply.

A teacher will give an assignment or work to students and will expert students to answer the questions word by word (also termed as DITO-DITO) which he or she taught in class. This does not allow the student to think or permit them to explain or express in his or her own way and in their own words. If a question is been answered right but not DITO-DITO or word by word from the teacher’s notes, it may be marked wrong or if lucky given a few marks. Most teacher prepare marking scheme for other people to mark their work for them who also expert students to answer questions word by word from what they have learn which also leads students to do the CHEW AND POUR. For example, a teacher will ask what a cap is which in the student own way can perfectly explain or give the definition of what a cap is but for the fear of been marked down or marked wrong, will throw away how he or she may define what a cap is and adopt the way it has been defined in a book. He or she may even have a better definition of what a cap is than what is in the book, but is been forced to throw away his own and unique way of seeing things to adopt the ideas of other people. This is the more reason why most students fail in mathematics. They fail in mathematics because maths cannot be done with the chew and pour method, you have to think.

After a student completes school, the graduate with nothing to bring on board, no unique skills, no creativity and entrepreneurial skills but only with a shape mind for chew and pour becomes dependence on the government to provide job opportunities for them. This is because, the system forces students right from the beginning to depend wholly on teachers to spoon feed them with notes they don’t understand properly and also notesthat do not helpthem to reason with their brains. So they chew, pour and pass then move to the next level, chew, pour and pass then to the next level and this goes on and on and on. And the other students who can’t do the chew and pour always wants to cheat in exams or have sexual relationship with teachers just to gain high marks, scores or results in exams. Therefore, students go to school and graduate with nothing in the head or no skills to create his or her own job, become dependent on the government. When you asked a student what a machine is, he or she will be able to give you the definition, functions or uses, importance and even how to operate it but when you give him or her the machine to apply his or her knowledge to operate it,it will be a different story all together.

If the government wants students to complete or graduate from school to be independent or to create their own jobs, it should start from the scratch by creating a better educational system which will train qualified, better and quality teachers from training colleges and other tertiary institution and also learn from scholars like professor Anku Sitsofe, Dr Emmanuel Kotia and other scholars who will train them to be better equipped to teach students not only for the sake of passing their exams but developing their knowledge and skills in how to apply them in the real life. Course structure should be reviewed regularly in line with demands of industry and the country’s developmental goals. The subject combination for students should be centered on their interests and job aspirations. With this, we will have graduates with better skills, creativity, innovation and ideas who will not need the help of the government to provide job opportunities for them but help the government in creating jobs, improving and developing the country.