67th Independence celebration: Extend pride to our education
Independence celebration never fails to arouse our sense of pride in our nation Ghana.
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The occasion is a poignant reminder of the diverse authentic beauty inherent in the people, cultures and natural resources of the country.
The 67th anniversary lived up to expectation.
Ayekoo to the forces, smart pupils and students who marched to remind us of our inalienable right as a sovereign nation.
I never get tired of admiring the elegance of our troops at independence parades, the elegant parade horse included.
My real treat is the troop formation.
The dexterity with which the troops rearrange themselves to form the celebration theme never ceases to impress.
Of course, the real treat is the perceived intelligence, discipline and dedication that transform humans to words/celebration themes.
Awesome art indeed!
It was also an occasion for the ruled to relay messages to the ruling regarding achievements and expectation.
My favourite placard display was “Digitisation all the way”.
My one appeal to Dr Bawumia is to complete the digitisation process in 2024 to formalise the economy and public transactions.
That will effectively check the greed plus sanitise formal transactions.
The patriotic song, Ͻman bεyε yie a, ofiri hεn ara, beautifully sung by the Eastern Regional Senior School Representatives powerfully captured the real motive behind the independence concept.
Having fought for and gained freedom from the coloniser, it is the responsibility of all citizens to work hard to build a strong nation that utilises its ample resources to better the lives of people in the nation and the globe.
The anniversary poetry written and recited in Ghanaian languages encapsulated our pride.
The message, directed at both young and old to aspire to productive behaviour for collective welfare, consolidated the theme of intergenerational learning advocated by UNESCO for inclusive and quality learning through indigenous languages.
However, it was surreal to watch the representation of local deities and customary practices at the parade.
Such representations do not belong to the independence parade.
Customs and ways of the people which must be preserved for future generations must be properly taught and passed on to growing generations at the community level.
Or such could be documented as authentic indigenous narrative for inter-generational reference.
Best of all, narrative as well as practice could be digitised as indigenous narrative.
The background music which welcomed the President should have been a patriotic song – as done for the Inspection of Parade – to align with the theme of pride in our achievements.
Three prayers – Traditional, Moslem and Christian – constitute redundancy and too much imposition.
A simple welcome is acceptable at public gatherings.
One does not need to hear a prayer of one’s spiritual affiliation.
What about those whose belief systems were not catered for by the three prayers. Redundant activities rendered the parade unnecessarily lengthy.
Extending pride
Pride in a nation is better demonstrated than professed.
The idea to rotate the destination of the independence celebration is laudable but can be improved upon.
It is time the independence concept was humanised.
Henceforth, every March 5 should be a National Volunteer Day.
People should volunteer in their communities for general cleaning and safe waste management or work to improve community life in modest ways.
The best route would be to maintain a healthy environment throughout the year.
The theme of learning and practice ran through the recitals, artistic performances, gymnastics, marching and troop formations, to name these.
The President spoke at length about the enhanced secondary education and expected improvement.
I share his sentiment that much has been achieved in the last eight years, especially skills development and STEM education.
However, the entire educational system needs to be injected with quality to produce diligent human capital.
Poor literacy is militating against learning success.
The tertiary system is churning out many graduates who do not match industrial needs due to poor skills.
Improving literacy would generally improve quality in education.
Getting automobile companies to build assembling plants in the country is highly commendable – job creation and international collaboration.
However, the poignant reality remains that automobile engineering departments across traditional and technical universities have failed to produce graduates who can manufacture vehicles.
There have been various attempts at designing vehicles, but none has yielded the desired educational outcome of made-in-Ghana car companies.
Kantanka is a different case.
After six decades of independence and more than five decades of technological education, that gap proves that the educational system is not yielding the desired manufacturing competence.
A nation so fixated on cars can, at least, aspire to manufacturing environmentally friendly cars.
Prioritising language, mathematics, science and technology at all learning levels would inject much needed quality into education.
Taking pride in our sovereignty is in order.
Acknowledge pride in our achievements is only human.
Accepting that we must work harder for improvement is dignifying.
Let us extend the pride to quality education to improve perspectives/intelligence to cater for collective welfare.
The writer is a Senior Lecturer, Language and Communication Skills,
Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi.
