Ghana, A Developed Country By 2025?

- Let us start by re-locating the capital Part 2

By Dr. A. Ofori Quaah

(Flitwick, Bedfordshire, UK)

Relevant Education And National Development

When I wrote about “Education, Education and Education”, I meant relevant education, the kind of education that equips every citizen, no matter where he or she was born or where she or she lives, to participate fully in national development. The kind of education that enables the citizen realise that in all things – contract negotiations and implementation, allocation of development projects, use and care of state facilities – the national interest is paramount and always comes first. Relevant education is the kind that inculcates in the citizen that the practice of indiscriminate littering does not only destroy the environment, but also causes diseases that lead to loss of man hours, impacts negatively on production and ultimately results in depreciation in the nation’s quality of life.

Much of this relevant education begins long before a child steps into the classroom. Listening to and watching parents, uncles, aunties, cousins and grandparents, is a very important part of the Ghanaian child’s education. It is this early home education that inculcates native wisdom – respect for elders, traditions of the community, the clan, respect for hard work, other people’s property, oratory and general comportment in public. It is here that a child learns to respect other people’s rights and takes responsibility for his or her actions. It used to involve the whole community. The boys learnt from the Asafo companies, the Mpintsin and Osode groups, while the girls learnt from the Adenkum, Adzewa and other female groups. At any time and place, any adult could correct or even scold a child that was falling out of line, without fear of a law suit or any kind of retribution whatsoever. Unfortunately, it is this native aspect of our education that has been missing in our national development effort over the past twenty-five or more years. None of the countries that made great strides in development in the twentieth century – Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, and South Korea – was able to do without a solid cultural base, and until we recognise the missing cultural link, any effort at developing our dear country will only result in modernisation without development or something a lot worse.

Even in ‘middle class’ environments, the norm now is both mom and dad have to work to keep body and soul together. Because of the now ridiculous grid-lock, dad in particular, is out of the house by 6 am. Mom has to leave early too, so with the barest of interaction with the children, it is left to ‘house helps’ and drivers to prepare and take the children to school. After school, there are the “extra classes” to attend. Saturday is “funeral day”, and father and mother may both be away all day. So Sunday at church and a few hours afterwards, is the only day the family gets together during the whole week, that is assuming our father goes to church at all, and does not “join the boys for omo tuo”, on Sunday.

The menace of extra classes

When I called my nephew last week and asked about my four year old grand-nephew, I was told “he was attending extra classes.” What in the name of Quantum Physics, is a four year old child attending extra classes for? What is he learning in the regular class in the first place, to require extra tuition? I heard of half-hearted attempts to ban “extra classes”, especially during the “revolutionary days.” The “extra classes” phenomenon is probably one of the major contributory factors to the destruction of our education system. How does anybody expect a five year old child to study ten to eleven months in a year, for ten years and not suffer a burn-out?

I was fortunate to be able to give extra tuition to our children and my wife’s nephew who came to live with us for a while. I used “age-based books” in English, Mathematics and Science from the United Kingdom for the purpose. Unfortunately, our first son got so far ahead, that it had a negative, almost disastrous effect on him. At school, as a new topic began, he knew what was coming and so he switched off completely. Out of boredom, he spent the time writing and drawing on his desk. When our attention was drawn to it, we woke him up at 6 one Saturday morning, got a bucket of water, sponge, soap and some dusters, to clean his desk and the teacher’s to boot. Then we minimised the amount of time we spent on “extra tuition.” Thank God, they all came through very well, attended good universities (our nephew will finish next year), and have embarked on excellent careers.

One of our friends has been teaching in schools in Accra for over twenty years. She is very conscientious and loves her job but she has literally become a pariah in her current school because she detests the whole idea of extra classes. She thinks some teachers do “smart-free,” teaching very little during the normal school hours, only to call for pupils to come for the “real thing”, what “will appear in the exams” at extra classes. Sometimes some “extra classes contractors” literally prevent her from doing her job because they use her teaching period to “collect their extra classes fees.” If any teacher, head teacher or educationist wishes to take me on, on this issue, I am prepared to put my money where my mouth is. I shall pay for completely unannounced school (proper) inspections in three state schools, one in Accra, one in the Central and one in the Eastern Region. In the inspections, children will be selected at random and tested in reading and dictation (English and vernacular) and mathematics. All of the school’s activities for the day will be watched and recorded secretly throughout the day. I have not told them, but my friends Ato Kobbie, Theophilus Ahwireng and Kwaku Darko, will coordinate the selection of schools and exercises. If any television company will be prepared to show the results with no cost to me, the unedited recordings will be shown on national television for all to judge.

I read somewhere (and later watched a lecture on it) that Finish education begins at age seven. A Finish child remains at home until his or her seventh birthday. On any given day a child that has attained age seven is welcomed individually and introduced to the local school. If in a community ten children attain age seven on a given day, all the teachers of their local school come together to receive and induct each child individually. At age seven, the child already speaks the language, knows the colours, speech patterns, what can and cannot be said in public and so on. The child knows how to relate to parents, siblings and neighbours. Therefore, forming new relationships with teachers and peers at school is not a major hurdle. Learning to write a language he or she speaks and already knows how to count in comes much easier. Not surprisingly, Finland is Number 3 on the international education league! Its level of development is there for all to see.

Above all, relevant education helps a person to blend into society, and become a net contributor to society’s development rather than a parasite whose every action is detrimental to the interest of the community. The late Professor Dziwornoo used to say that “the purpose of a university degree is not how much you have learnt, but how much you remember at the end of it all. That a university degree is meant to prepare a person to fit into society, so that if after a degree in physics a person finds himself driving a taxi, he should do it better than the one who does not have a university degree.”

Interest in early education

The fate of most children as far as the academic ladder is concerned, is sealed by the time they are ten years old. That is why the state, community and parents especially, have to take keen interest in the development of our primary schools, in terms of infrastructures, teachers and learning aids. Therefore, it is a crying shame that in this day and age, some children still attend primary schools under trees. I saw one such school deep in the western region a while ago. I was on a geophysical field trip that got me trapped in the “bush” on 6th March. The whole school was made up of two rooms built with mud, with very rough walls and dusty floors. The children were marching enthusiastically as their only teacher clapped her hands to provide the ‘music’ for the march past. And guess what? There were no officials or even parents to watch them. I thought about those children all day. What did they really have to march for? I often remember that experience every 6th March.

A few years ago, someone I know was sent out by a company he was working for to audit a European Union school pavilion project in the Volta Region. When he got there, he found that some of the pavilions which were only two years old were already falling apart. Instead of the mahogany planks that had been supposedly used for the beams of the roofs, there were “wawa or silk cotton” planks that were being eaten by weasels. All the masons, carpenters and other artisans who were paid to build these pavilions had children attending those schools, and they were not bothered about their children attending school daily in such death traps. Worse still, the receipts for the purchases were written on pieces of paper. Much of it could not be traced. The accounts had not been written. Therefore the auditor had to help with the writing of the accounts so he could audit them.

The money probably first went to the regional office, then to the district office and nobody bothered about whatever eventually seeped through to the villages. It is said that “the speed of a coach is judged by its slowest horse and in a convoy by its slowest coach.” If we wish to develop our country in the real sense of the word, then we must pay more attention to the schools in the deprived areas of our country.

Revamping the formal education system mus t begin with the provision of proper infrastructure and training of teachers. I believe that the whole concept of the Junior and Senior Secondary School system, as mooted in the late 1960s had teacher training at the core of the policy. Pupil teachers were to be phased out, followed by Certificate ‘A’ teachers. All teachers of Junior Secondary school subjects were to be graduates or specialists in their subjects, which was what prevailed in most secondary schools in Ghana in the early to mid 1960s. For instance, apart from technical subjects like woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing, all my teachers were university graduates, and they loved their work. The teaching profession is a noble one and our teachers should be made to feel that they are the lynch-pin in our national development effort. Those who go into it must do so out of love for the profession and not as a fall-back position because they could not enter university, to pursue other professions. They have to be properly remunerated for youngsters to yearn to be teachers. There are head teachers in the United Kingdom who earn over £200,000 (more than the Prime Minister), because they love their work and have been at it for a long time.

Whoever proposed the idea of promoting teachers and moving them from the classroom and making them desk-bound directors in dusty district and regional education offices has done a great dis-service to Mother Ghana. Why can’t a teacher remain in the classroom, teach for forty years and retire at the highest salary level? Going personal again, my former student and friend T. K. Mensah, has taught physics in the same school for about thirty-four years, the last fifteen, as Headmaster. During that period, he has taught physics to numerous students in the Western and Central Regions. Many of his students have gone on to become engineers, doctors, nurses, professors and even reverend ministers. Isn’t it that what being a teacher is all about? Is that not what the Adu-Ampomahs, Mensah-Kanes, T. A. Osaes, and Agyepong-Yamoahs, among others, lived and died for? Those were the real heroes.

“Now praise we great and famous men; The Fathers named in story……” Stay blessed. The Author, Dr. Amos Ofori Quaah is a Seismologist and a former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC). He currently lives and works in the UK. Contact: ofori.quaah@gmail.com Credit: The Business Analyst (thebusinessanalystgh@gmail.com)

RE: GHANA, A DEVELOPPED COUNTRY BY 2025?

Hello, I am Indian. I was in Ghana for 5 months recently. I made some observations. I think Ghanaians have potential to rise. They are extremely honest, courteous & hardworking. They love peace. Personally I think moving the capital is not a practical idea. Accra will still remain the economic hub of Ghana. Moving capital will subtract its official & political value. Economic & political powers should be concentrated in one city. It enables better management, especially for a small country like Ghana.

I would suggest you groom Kumasi to be the Manchester of Ghana. I would like to know one city in the world which is disaster proof. Threat of natural disasters is not quite a convincing reason to undertake such a move. It will cost billions. We have to brave Mother Nature once in a while.

You are so right about Education. Education in Ghana is horrible. It needs to be revamped right from the Kindergarten to Doctoral level. Education is a must for Ghana's future. Ghana needs quality teachers & professors, import them if necessary. Quality technical & vocational institutes are needed. If the education system remains the same then Ghana will not be a developed country by 2025.

For a country to be developed every citizen needs to be developed (financially secured and well educated); therefore quality education is necessary. Corruption too is a serious concern. Accra needs a good public transport system. An inner city train will boost the city’s economy. It will enable people to travel long distance.

Ghana is a peaceful country and that is Ghana's biggest social advantage and needs to be leveraged at maximum.

You have mentioned generously about India. Thank You. India has more poor people than entire Africa. But what we also have are quality educational institutes. They are our way out of poverty. Hope following video explains how & why Indians are ahead in technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBk4Z4q1fEg

---------- REGARDS PRITASH CHAUDRY

He who says he can and he who says he cant are both usually right: CONFUCIUS