Quantum leap in education under Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP (1951 - 1966)

By: Prof Lungu

In Remembrance and Celebration of Kwame Nkrumah's Exemplary Performance on Behalf of Unitary Ghana During 1951 - 24th February, 1966

In 26 years between 1911 and 1937, for a total of 740,000 eligible children at the end of the period, "enrollment of pupils in government and aided schools" had increased just about 5.9%. In other words, before independence, it took more than a generation for Guggisberg and latter day British colonial authorities to provide primary school education to just 6% of school-age children in the Gold Coast.

In fact, during the 1950s and at independence, less than 10% of eligible school-age children would be enrolled in school; nor was cost of education totally free of charge to the parents of the lucky few enrolled in primary schools in a few localities.

A most lurid description of the effects of colonialism on human development and by consequence, one of the major imperatives and marching orders for Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Leader of Government Business and Government during 1951 - 1966, is captured by Angela W. Little (2010) using that same 1937 University of London archival data:

"....By the 1930s, (colonial Gold Coast) education planners were projecting student enrolments based on past trends and costs. Figure 1 (above) indicates that between 1911 and 1937 the enrolment of pupils in government and aided schools increased from around 18,000 to 44,000. With an estimated school age population of 740,000 it was calculated that it would take 600 years before all were in school...Based instead on the growth in the percentage of the school-age population enrolled in school it was calculated...that it would take 3,500 years to achieve a GER of 100%...".

In 1951, as Kwame Nkrumah was assuming office as Leader of Government Business of the Gold Coast, there were just 208 students enrolled in university in the Gold Coast, possibly including wards of colonial officers from Britain. In 1966, when Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by the Nonentities, Liars and Crooks (NLC) with the assistance of rascal civilian Komla Gbedemah and Kofi Busia, almost 4,300 students were enrolled in not 1, but 3, universities in Ghana.

GHANA'S QUANTUM LEAP IN EDUCATION (1951 - 1966)

Below, "Ghana's Quantum Leap in Education" revisits school and enrollment data previously published 24 Feb 17, this time with totals and percentage changes, for the period 1951 (pop ~5,436,555), through 1966 (pop ~7,891,194).

Please take a very good look at the chart. Save a copy for your records and for all those people you think ought to know about this.

The chart shows that under Kwame Nkrumah's leadership, in 15 short years, university enrollment alone jumped through the proverbial "roof" about 1,965%, from 208 to 4,291.

In fact, Presidents Akufo Addo Dankwa, John Atta Mills, and John Kufour are all represented in those "University Student Enrollment" numbers.

To the point, using this example of success in education alone, Ghana could not have achieved 355% and 839% across the board quantum leaps in the number of schools and number of students enrolled, respectively, to include a 690% change in "Teacher Training", without spending and investing some of the reserves Kwame Nkrumah's own government accrued for Ghana in the 1950s.

By this example alone, Kwame Nkrumah and his CPP could not have done all that for Ghana and still allow those who, including their children and childrens' children, in fact benefited directly those investments and still do, to then turn around to uncritically complain that Kwame Nkrumah wasted the reserves his own government accrued for Ghana as Leader of Government Business, and of Government, during 1951 and February, 1966.

When they do, it is a bald-face smear campaign against Kwame Nkrumah recognizable by objective and impartial observers the world over.

J. B. Danquah, after all, did not construct a single school shed, nor did he supervise even a dozen workers to install a single 1 mile of asphalt pavement. Surely, talking theory of government in an armchair is not the same a running a bureau, let alone a government, pre- and post-independence.

And the academic, rascal Kofi Abrefa Busia, when the military engineered his ascension to power post independence, with all the benefits of Kwame Nkrumahs investments on behalf of Ghanaians, proved a miserable failure and made things even worse than the Nonentities, Liars, and Crooks (NLC) left him.

And so, during the 1950s through the 1960s, through the mid-1970s, powered by those transformational changes in education, infrastructure, and corresponding increases in the quality of life, Ghana had not just the best trained teachers, but also, the best trained students and public servants in much of Africa, certainly in all of sub-Sahara Africa, Liberia which had been independent since 1847, included.

Those are facts with data at bottom.

YES, THE ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA BEGAN EXACTLY 51 YEARS AGO, (not at, or following independence), WITH THE OVERTHROW OF KWAME NKRUMAH, WHEN THE LIFTOFF STAGE OF GHANA'S INDUSTRIAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT WAS CRUDELY ABORTED, AND THUS BEGUN THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA.

Ghana's developmental malaise and socioeconomic, fiscal, and physical disequilibrium surely began in 1966, exactly 51 years ago, if you care about data, and not just talk for talking sake.

So it goes, Ghana!

SOURCES/NOTES:

1. Angela W. Little. Access to Basic Education in Ghana: politics, policies and progress, CREATE PATHWAYS TO ACCESS Research Monograph No. 42 August 2010, Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity.

2. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER). Total enrolment, or degree of participation, in primary education regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official primary school-age population in a given school-year. Must be used with other measures to get a better gauge of educational participation

3. Prof Lungu. 51 Years Ago this Feb 24th, They Stole Ghana’s Industrial Revolution! (https://www.modernghana.com/news/757662/51-years-ago-this-feb-24th-they-stole-ghanas-industrial-re.html), 24th February, 2017.

4. Prof Lungu. 51 Years Ago this Feb 24th, They Stole Ghana’s Industrial Revolution! (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/51-Years-Ago-this-Feb-24th-They-Stole-Ghana-s-Industrial-Revolution-513578) ), 24th February, 2017.