It is becoming more and more obvious that Ghana, as a third world country, has so much untapped wealth, and I dare say that this wealth, which could be in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, is completely overlooked because it is in the most unsuspecting place – the human resource. In the Global Finance report of Saturday September 19, 2020, Ghana, with a Gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita of $6,956, is ranked the sixtieth poorest nation in the world. (Ref: https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world).
We could be ranked among the top ten in the world if only we direct are attention to the human person. And in the humans we have to find out what gifts or talents God has placed in them that will be of good use to them, and to society in general.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in Ghana, we realised that some Ghanaians without any degree in engineering came out with automatic sanitising equipment which had zero human contact. We rejoiced and praised them, thanking God for putting such people among us. Now what next?
How many more Ghanaians are lost out there with what it takes to make Ghana rub shoulders with the industrialised nations of the world?
It is all about our education system and how it is conducted. Many thanks to H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for introducing the Free Senior High School (SHS) concept against all odds, facing so many challenges from resources through to opposition outbursts.
The education of the child is so much important if we are to find out what talents God has placed in them, and how to put them into good use for their benefit and the benefit of society. And so no child must be left out, none whatsoever. This is why I think Ghanaians should commend the President for picking up the challenge to ensure that all Ghanaian children have free access to formal education.
Free SHS should not just end here, but there is the need for a revolutionary overhauling and transformation of our education syllabus and system. Currently, the system is not opened up to accommodate children with interests that do not fall within the core syllabuses. The child is led through a strait jacket approach, and forced to encounter and embrace subjects which, even their general application to life, is not taught them. So we have our top science and mathematics students going out to world and failing practical science examinations. And yet, they are the best we could produce.
It all began from the first day the Ghanaian child stepped into the classroom. He/she is taught how to memorise “Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?” and other English nursery rhymes, identifying him/her more to English and isolating him/her from where he/she truly comes from and belongs to, the Ghanaian and the Ghanaian culture, nothing about “Kyekyekule” and other local rhymes. Meanwhile, him/her contemporary in the UK is given the opportunity to explore him/herself at that early stage of her academic life and gets to identify what she came on earth to do. As she moves up the academic ladder she is prepared for life the way she can lead it. Here those gifted to be engineers move unto that path, those gifted to be doctors move to the medical field, those gifted to be in the field of arts are prepared to become among the best in the world and so on, and no one loses out on the way.
Meanwhile, here in Ghana, our children are forced to read and learn all of Shakespeare’s books, all about Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, and many more without knowing much about the lives of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, Yaa Asantewa, King Tackie Tawiah, Chief Acolatse, Chief Tamaklo and other historically important builders of our nation.
We are taught to take breakfast comprising hot tea and bread, pushing aside our kokoo, akatsa, koose which God put alongside us on this land to eat and be well nourished. And talk about the foreign exchange we spend on the importation of wheat flour for our bread and pastries. What happened to some of our local cereals which could be turned into flour and made into bread?
Back to education, we end up training up our children how to pretend to be like the white man without giving them the tools to, at least, match up with them at an appreciable level. We only boast of how brilliant we are, but we can’t turn that brilliance into making a great impact in our lives to lift us up and be counted among the greatest nations of the world.
If only we could revive our education system and make that child enjoy school and schooling because he or she can identify with it, and because there is something in them they see in school, we could turn out people who will be the world’s best.
Last week, we were told a story of an eighteen year old Basic Entrance Certificate Examination (BECE) graduate called Kelvin Odartey Garshon, who upgraded his skills in producing toy cars to producing a car he could actually sit in and drive around. I hope the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) personnel will not chase him to license his vehicle and get it insured.
The question is was such engineering a subject or topic in the syllabuses Odartey encountered from nursery through to Junior High School (JHS)? The answer is “No.” So, obviously, this thing about manufacturing vehicles is in him, and he could not shut it down, even for the sake of formal education. This is the result; Ghana has someone, a complete illiterate in the field of engineering who can build a vehicle that will move like all others. I only hope Odartey is given all the necessary support and finances to become what God brought him on earth to be.
How many more of Kelvin Odartey Garshon are out there, lost in the classroom and always sky gazing, hoping the education system could guide them to unearth their hidden talents to serve mankind in the way they were brought into the world to do?
How many pupils or students drop out from school because of poor performance, when in effect they should be leading their class in areas that could help society?
Free SHS is a very good thing, but to improve upon it, we need to transform our educational system on syllabus and style and method of teaching. We have many scientists, aeronautical engineers, health research scientists, and people who could be the best in the world in the entertainment industry and what have you, but are rather dropping out of school and settling for jobs like petty traders, bookmen, porters, peasant farming, newspaper vendors and unskilled workers. This must not be allowed to continue. No child is useless, it is the responsibility of the system to bring out what he or she is most capable of doing. We need education with syllabuses to make that child productive.
Thank you Kelvin Odartey Garshon for opening our eyes. I only pray we can see with them.
Hon Daniel Dugan
The post The urgent need for an Educational Revolution appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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