Education ministry petitioned over colonialism

The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has been petitioned by an advocacy group- Positive Education Coalition(PEC),to put measures in place to do away with teaching materials in the education system that seek to glorify colonialism to Ghanaian student .

The PEC, which is composed of a group of the University of Ghana SRC, the Convention People’s Party Youth League, the Pan African Improvement Organisation and other civil society groups and individuals has also demanded for the expunging of any educational content that vilifies the nation’s founder, Dr Kwame Nkrumah

“We are also demanding an end to the vilification of Kwame Nkrumah, the nation’s Founder, architect of Positive Action, first President, and African hero, in the formal education system and the removal of all praise for criminal colonial Governors such as Sir Alan Burns and Sir Gordon Guggisburg. This demand will be met by removing all content promoting colonialism, removing all content vilifying Kwame Nkrumah, removing all content praising colonial Governors and administrators, and infusing Kwame Nkrumah’s books into the curriculum as primary source material for the official Ghana education system”, it said.

Reading the petition on behalf of the group, the president of the Students’ Representative Council of the University of Ghana, Mr. Eric Edem Agbana described as an “abomination” the inclusion of educational materials that teach students from the primary to secondary levels of education to value the raping and exploitation of Ghana by the Europeans during the colonial era.

This he contended, stands in sharp contrast to historical records that led to the struggles for freedom and independence by Ghanaians from the British and the relics of colonial governance.

In some of the books currently being used Dr.Kwame Nkrumah was described as abusing power and that he was a dictator, delegating powers and posts to only members of his Convention People’s Party(CPP).

PEC believes, the continuous indoctrination of the innocent Ghanaian student by such pro-colonialism and anti-Nkrumah educational contents would lead them to wrongly see colonialism as the best thing that has ever happened to Ghana and cause them to defend colonial interests

“The current colonial education material being used conditions the Ghanaian student to value colonialism with subservient thinking under European imperialism so they can accept neo-colonialism and even defend it against Ghanaian independence and sovereignty in any form. It is designed to condition students to hate Kwame Nkrumah and the oppose the heritage of independence, sovereignty and Pan-Africanism that our freedom fighters shed their blood to pass on for us to carry but rather to love European colonialism and value and defend its economic interest of capitalist private investment and to believe in white supremacy against the Ghanaian masses”, the group said.