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Whither are we heading or drifting?

 

 

I was pleased with the assurance of President Mahama that he would work to create a country that “is prosperous with equal opportunities for all”.  I was, however, unhappy that he intended to hold a meeting with financial experts “to advise him on mortgage financing”.  I asked myself, “What on earth are his ministers and the plethora of advisers doing?”

I believe we have a minister responsible for housing, among other matters, with an array of civil servants and other public officers and institutions to deal with the housing problem.  The President should see to it that his ministers discharge their  duties.  A meeting of experts with the President will hit the headlines but achieve little useful purpose, except increase the drift towards nowhere which punctuates our national life.  

To remind ourselves, we built Ringway Estate and similar ones at Kanda, La Bone and Teshie-Nungua.  Where has the knowledge gone? Have we lost so much self-confidence that any expertise must come from outside while our officials and trained personnel waste their substance in unfulfilling, riotous living in most-modern vehicles on our congested, pothole-infested roads? We must stop the drift.  We should know what we have done in the past. We should resolve to chart and work for the great future we deserve.

The future is bright.  But we must learn and work.  Education is therefore a priority and we should find the present state of our schools and colleges most disturbing.  Fortunately it is not a question of money or funding.  What we spend on education is sufficient to produce students not with certificates but with learning and enhanced thinking capacity.  International organisations recommend that five per cent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be spent on education.  Ghana has for many years exceeded that target and spent and continues to spend about 10 per cent of its GDP on education.  If you read the budget you will find that about 20 per cent of total national expenditure is on education.  Why then do so many complain that education is in bad shape? The gut feeling which leads to the complaint is supported by the facts and official statistics.

Our Constitution demands that every child should go to school.  At the primary school level however, only about 95 per cent of children go to school.  This is not bad, since we do not charge parents to see to it that their children go to school.  Attendance, however, drops at the junior high school (JHS) level to 78 per cent.  At the senior high school (SHS) level enrolment drops to 38 per cent.  This means that 40 per cent of JHS students do not proceed to the SHS level.

The result is what we see all around us.  The majority of our people cannot speak the official language English or communicate in it.  Their command of the mother tongue is equally bad.  You do not need research by experts to reveal the seriousness of the situation.  Television interviews on the spot are often in Twi and the command of the Twi or Akan language is poor, let alone the poor thinking or collection of thoughts which lead to expression.

We are creating two nations to war in the bosom of a single state.  We should wake up and unite the people through education.  Fortunately the evidence is staring us in the face that we can improve on education now if only we take the obvious decisions now.  History tells us that Mfantsipim, Adisadel, Wesley Girls High School and Achimota achieved impressive results through reasonable independence.  Not all the teachers were trained and past brilliant students were persuaded to teach and  good results were produced.

Many of the private schools which do better than the state schools are not staffed wholly with trained teachers.  This fact and the experience of the old schools suggest that National Service persons can help reduce the huge class sizes which now face state schools.  In some areas of development where we need progress, great funds are needed.  In education the 10 per cent of GDP spent comes to over one billion US dollars a year.  We therefore cannot complain of lack of funds. We do not, however, use the money disbursed well.  The biggest expenditure is on emolument for personnel.  More money is spent on the management system in education than on any item of expenditure.  This must be changed.  The education management system should deal with national regulation of schools and grants.  It should divest itself from building schools, appointment and dismissal of teachers and administrators, feeding and providing uniform of students and the like.  In short, the education management system should be decentralised and streamlined.

After discussing these problems of education with some friends, we moved to the fields of health, the economy and social issues.  It was suggested that I should lead discussions of these pressing issues at a public forum.  I found it beyond my competence to deal adequately with these issues.  But when it was agreed that the learned and competent of the land would be invited to contribute at the forum, I agreed to lead discussion as a facilitator.

It was agreed that the forum on ‘Ghana in Perspective’ will start off on January 27 at the GIJ conference hall at 5.30 p.m.  The venue should enable our young and experienced media personnel to participate.

We are at the crossroads.  We should stop the frequent drifts and head towards a desired goal.  It is our duty.  It is in our interest.  It is our democratic duty to educate ourselves and persuade and assist the government of the day to promote rapid economic and social progress. We the people have a responsibility for our future.  Democracy is meaningless if it only involves choosing those who will lead or mislead us once every four years. We should be involved in shaping the national path to progress.

 

 

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