Education must be free from the shackles of politics - Expert

Ho, Aug. 8, GNA - Mr Martin Dzikunu, a Retired Educationist, on Thursday blamed successive regimes for the present problems in the educational sector, which he said was the result of their refusal to continue with the policies of their predecessors.

"This malady is a drawback and a disincentive to the development of the sector because the distortions and missing links have not been rationalised," he said.

Mr Dzikunu was delivering a lecture on: "Education Undergoing Evolution in Ghana: The Way Forward", at the Reverend Trost Memorial Lectures being held as part of the 53rd Honours Day celebration of the Mawuli School in Ho.

He said reforms in the sector were necessary in order to meet the dynamics and direction of modernisation and globalisation, but must be done in the national interest.

"Education must be free from the shackles of politics", he reiterated.

Mr Dzikunu criticised the 1987 reforms, which he said was fraught with several inadequacies in their implementation. "The concept was par excellence but it failed to graft the primary education component." He proposed the legislation of a national policy on education to serve as a working document to address the distortions in the sector, irrespective of government change.

He further called for an independent national council to steer the affairs of the sector, instead of the present ministerial disposition.

"Education is a long-term investment and should not be fraught with frequent interferences", he advised.