Education — Are we getting value for money?
At the fourth quadrennial and 51st delegates conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) held on January 8, 2014, the President, John Mahama, stated that Ghana spent more than a third of its annual budget on education. At the meeting, appropriately on the theme: “Education in Crisis”, he asked the question, are we getting value for money?
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My answer is a resounding no! The root cause of the country’s current intractable problems can be traced to serious weaknesses in our education system.
During my turn to speak at the stakeholders meeting for the preparation of the 2014–16 Budget Statement, I shared my thoughts on how we could correct the weaknesses in our education system. I have decided to share these thoughts with my readers as well since it is of public interest.
Four major problems I named were as follows:
Access
Currently, we have some 2,300 schools under trees. If we are making such huge investments in the sector, the least we should expect is basic infrastructure to facilitate teaching and learning. So where are the funds going? Under the primitive conditions of holding classes under trees, I think the current “one-laptop-per child” policy puts the cart before the horse. How do you operate a computer under a tree in the rain and shine with no power source to charge it? We must first divert such resources to providing school buildings before such programmes can be effective. We cannot expect to successfully leapfrog technology without having the basics in place.
The subject of access was a major campaign issue in the 2012 elections. We hope that it will receive the urgent attention promised by the government.
Quality and content
The question here is: What are we teaching our children?
Education is not merely the assimilation of knowledge in subjects such as History, Literature, or Mathematics. It must include the moulding of the person’s character for appropriate behaviour in society. If we had done this properly, unacceptable character traits such as indiscipline, dishonesty, corruption, laziness, greed and selfishness which now plague our society would have been minimised. Instead, we can see these negative attitudinal problems across the whole spectrum of our society from the peasant farmer to the university professor.
I believe the problem can be resolved by including the teaching of the nine basic life principles in the curricula of all levels of our education system. These principles are: ethics, integrity, responsibility, respect for laws and rules, respect for the human rights, good attitude to work, punctuality, good savings and investment culture, and will of super action.
If we start teaching these principles today, in a few years, we will reap the rewards.
Relevance to the country’s manpower needs
A good education system must produce the manpower needs of the country at any point in time. It must be obvious to us that the current priority manpower needs for the successful transformation of our underdeveloped economy is in the application of science and technology.
The ability to execute our business plan of a better Ghana lies in our ability to apply modern science and technical expertise to development. Science and technology will provide the skills necessary to transform slums into paradise, turn waste water into potable water, facilitate the movement of people by land, sea and air, erect factories that produce many of our daily needs, find ways to grow enough food to feed all in the society, and heal the sick. No other manpower development focus will enable us to provide these needs at a desirable pace.
This was recognised during the Nkrumah regime and a lot of progress was made but we abandoned it with his overthrow. Now we have to rely on Chinese and other external sources for technical expertise.
To add insult to injury, the curricular of the numerous private universities have excluded the teaching of science and technology. This must not be allowed to continue.
We must return to the teaching of science and technical subjects at our vocational and technical schools, as well as universities and encourage our children to study them. We must produce enough skilled Ghanaians to lead the development effort.
I am not saying that other educational disciplines are not important. I am talking about timing and focus. If majority of citizens are malnourished or poorly housed, I do not think they will enjoy a poetry recital, for instance. That will come when they are satisfied and sitting in an air-conditioned lecture theatre. That is the point.
Little effort at producing entrepreneurs
Our current education system, which is a relic of our colonial past, emphasises producing employees to the neglect of entrepreneurs. Consequently, no jobs are being created to absorb the burgeoning workforce. The situation must be reversed in order to solve the unemployment problem.
Entrepreneurial training in our schools would have empowered Ghanaians to convert their vast natural resources into wealth for better lives for all. Instead, it is foreigners such as Chinese, Indians and Lebanese who come here empty-handed to take advantage of the opportunities around us that we cannot see and get wealthy in a few years, with the help of our labour.
Presently, our national income is so small that it only goes to pay public servants because we have no idea how to grow it. If we start entrepreneurial training in our schools today, in a few years, it would be Ghana’s turn to perform the economic miracles that have taken other countries in our class out of poverty.
Implementing these programmmes to ensure that our education system delivers quality citizenry is not difficult. What is difficult is finding dedicated persons with the right attitude and commitment to do the job. Can we all put our shoulders to the wheel?
Writer’s e-mail: [email protected]
