Ghana, a developed country by 2025?

Let us start by re-locating the capital (Part III)

By Dr. A. Ofori Quaah (Flitwick, Bedfordshire, UK)

“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.

You are so right about Education. Education in Ghana is horrible. It needs to be revamped right from the Kindergarten to Doctoral level.”

PRITASH CHAUDRY

Revamping the education system That our education system as it stands at the present time, is not fit for purpose is obvious for any casual observer to see, unless of course, someone is an ostrich that likes to bury its head in the sand and refuse to see what is going on around him or her. One obvious symptom of the decay is our inability to hold decent debates whether in public or private interactions, without insults. We seem to have lost the power of critical thinking. On the radio, at public gatherings, on the internet, etc., it is always the same, tribal insults, wild allegations and crude obscenities. The saddest part of it all is that seemingly mature people who would like to be respected in society are not immune to this disgraceful behaviour.

The revamp that is required to move our developmental effort forward is not cosmetic but a major surgical operation. We need to begin at the village level. What kind of infrastructure exists in terms of school buildings, libraries, laboratories, sports facilities and teaching aids? Are they of the condition that can be safely repaired? Do we have to build new ones from scratch? If we are serious about quality education for all, then all state school buildings and other facilities wherever they are in the country must be raised to comparable levels. Under the capricious Apartheid system, the then South African government spent about $1500 on a white child while spending a measly $100 on the black child. Unless we wish to practise twenty-first century apartheid in our school system, then we have no business maintaining the current disparities in the provision of school infrastructure.

If we are going to provide decent buildings and other facilities for all Ghanaian children, then there must be a complete overhaul of our poor maintenance culture. The buildings of my old primary school have been around since the 1920s. A few of the original pupils’ desks and most of the teachers’ tables are still in use today. Even in primary school, we were taught to whitewash our school buildings and lanes with shells, to maintain the aesthetic beauty of the surroundings. If we are going to make any headway in our development effort, we must teach our children at a very early age how to maintain public property. In the proposed revamping exercise, there will have to be scheduled monthly, annual as well as ten-year maintenance regimes of all school facilities.

Recycling, re-use and sustainability must form the bedrock of the redevelopment programme. Rainwater harvesting and storage will be a primary requirement of all school buildings. Whether it is the building of new structures or renovation of existing ones, the provision of decent school infrastructure must be carried out and owned by the people – parents, teachers, pupils, everyone in the community. The whole community or its accredited representatives must be involved at every stage of the process, from the choice of facilities through the purchase of materials to the approval for final payment of contractors.

Staffing requirements

I once learnt from a teacher in a village Junior Secondary School that one teacher taught eight different subjects in the school because they did not have the staff to teach the “specialised subjects”. Is it any wonder that some schools consistently score zero percent at the BECE? Many teachers, particularly in the village schools, are not qualified to teach the subjects they are supposed to be teaching, others have no interest in the work they do, while many others are simply not of teaching material. The first act of the staffing process in the revamp programme is to determine which teachers require retraining or redeployment. Some of those who do not make the grade can be taken on as “classroom assistants”, to help the teachers (not as teachers), with their normal teaching programmes.

The universities and other tertiary institutions will be assisted to establish diploma and advanced certificate programmes, to bring up to scratch those teachers with the potential to be specialists in their fields. The courses could be run as full-time and or “distant learning” basis, whereby participants will undertake coursework by mail during term-time while attending short-time residential programmes during the holidays, as it is done in other countries. There will also be the need for at least two good polytechnics in every region, to train the teachers for technical and vocational subjects in the primary and Junior Secondary Schools. Eventually, there will be one polytechnic in every district, to absorb the large army of pupils who are not academically inclined (those who make up the unpardonable wastage of the current system), to be trained as qualified artisans.

My Polish friends tell me that most Polish people go through the polytechnic system on their way to university. As a result, most Polish graduates would have useful skills in two or more technical disciplines by the time they finish their first degree. At the present time any major renovation works on a home or office in the United Kingdom, are likely to be done by a full complement of Polish carpenters, masons, plumbers, plasterers and electricians. Their handiwork work is of such high quality that they could only be done by well qualified artisans. Not surprisingly, our Polish friends send £5,000 to Poland, including the major cities, and are able to put up complete houses with all amenities, a sum of money that will probably not buy a plot of land in Ghana!

Computer literacy

I have just spoken to my niece who teaches computer skills to four and five year olds in America. Last year, a six year old child gained a grade A pass at GCSE in computer skills in the United Kingdom. If we are going to compete in the twenty-first century and be able to attract investment, we have to begin to develop the skilled workforce that is required by industry. In this day and age, it is inconceivable to learn of chief executives whose emails are sent by secretaries or clerical officers who cannot access the internet or send emails. The state has to provide broadband access to ensure that every school child has at least four hours of internet use every week. Children will do their research and create projects in science and technology, agriculture, the arts and music, as part of their normal school assessment. Four or five schools in a catchment area can be grouped together to share computer/internet resources. In the short to medium term, there are non-governmental organisations all over Europe and North America that will readily donate used laptops and PCs to our schools if we are serious about the computerisation of our schools. Instead of the current situation where all and sundry bring in other people’s electronic junk to pollute our environment, the state can regulate the trade and appoint accredited agencies, workshops and individuals that can, in collaboration with the national Standards Board, receive, revamp and certify used computers for distribution to schools.

In the long term, there is no reason why some of the ingenious workshops at Kumasi “Magazine”, the technology centre at UST and others cannot be turned into our own versions of “Silicon Valley” over fifteen years, for the assembly of affordable solar powered computers.

Financing the redeveloping of education

Serious problems require radical solutions. At meetings and workshops in Europe and North America, one often comes across investors who cannot find the right calibre of Ghanaians to hire for their local operations. Those that they manage to recruit have bad attitudes to work - lateness, absenteeism, lack of initiative, and one thousand-and-one excuses why the most trivial of assignments cannot be performed. This has to change, if our now certified oil resources are not going to be fritted away to fuel other people’s economies.

In the price build-up for petroleum products, a certain percentage is reserved for exploration. Now that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is earning money in its own right through its ten percent carried interest in all the production operations, the exploration levy should be put in a pot and ring-fenced for the education revamp programme. That money does not belong to the state; it has been able to survive without it for the past twenty-six years of the corporation’s existence.

Additionally, there are mining companies that are causing havoc with their surface mining operations in Ghana (I saw it in the Konongo, Obuasi, Tarkwa, Aboso and Bogosu areas.) Those companies must be asked to contribute just one percent of their pre-tax profits into the pot. As a matter of goodwill, the oil producing companies can also contribute 0.1% of their pre-tax profits into the pot. After all, they will all benefit from a skilled and disciplined Ghanaian labour force. It will save them bringing in expensive expatriate employees. As I mentioned earlier, this is a local project which will be owned by local communities. Therefore local communities must make an effort to contribute towards its success. In Kenya they call it “Harambeee!!!!” The Ghanaian equivalent will be “Twuoo..........bueeiii!!!!!” Young people and young adults go round collecting money over a six-day period, culminating in the seventh day of a picnic atmosphere of fundraising. Dignitaries are invited from all over the country to help with the fundraising. I must add that it is not the kind of fundraising function that half of the money raised is used to but stuff to fill the car boots of elected officials with goats, sheep, yams and other goodies. No, everyone, including invited officials, brings something to share while raising as much money as possible for a good cause. Invited state officials who turn up more than one hour late will be named and shamed.

Controlling the funds

At the local level, the money for the projects will be overseen by local committees made up of teachers and others nominated by identifiable groups and the chiefs. These committees will render quarterly accounts to the chiefs and their elders who will forward their accounts to the appropriate district and regional committees that will in turn account to a national officer for presentation to Parliament. That is why the chiefs will not be directly involved in the disbursement/control of the funds. The chiefs know their subjects. They know those of their subjects who live and work in the cities and contribute actively to local development. They can be co-opted to bring their knowledge and expertise to bear on the process. Anyone who misappropriates money from the fund will be promptly prosecuted and jailed, to deter others from following suite.

Conclusion

During my third year at UST, I and a few of my friends did a rough poll of engineering, science, agriculture, architecture and pharmacy students in our hall. At the time, we found that 75% of the students in these disciplines in the hall came from state (so-called saito), mostly village schools. If a similar poll was done today, it will be a miracle if up to 5% of the students in the hall came from the state system. That is a serious indictment of our education system today. That is why our national development effort continues to flounder. The unfortunate “lame duck” baggage of our education system must be assisted to begin to walk along; otherwise our national centenary anniversary will come round to find choked open gutters, large numbers of dog chain sellers and huge numbers of our compatriots dying unnecessarily from common malaria. 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. Credit: The Business Analyst (thebusinessanalystgh@gmail.com)