Education ministry petitioned over colonialism

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• Conventional Youth 11 years ago

  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 ...
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  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

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• Oheneba Fredua Okronto 11 years ago

  I'm impressed by the boldness of this group, PEC. I do not support the idea of censorship of any kind. However, waking up to the evils of colonialism by African youth today is really refreshing! It is long overdue!
  
  After t ...
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  I'm impressed by the boldness of this group, PEC. I do not support the idea of censorship of any kind. However, waking up to the evils of colonialism by African youth today is really refreshing! It is long overdue!
  
  After the overthrow of the freedom fighters (think Nkrumah, Nyerere, Ben Bella, and many others) who led a successful campaign to rid Africa of slavery as well as one of the most humiliating colonial domination the world has ever seen (check, for example,the history of the 19th century European partition of Africa and the chattel slavery before that!), the African continent went through a tailspin of reactionary military and civilian regimes that sought to glorify the West in exchange for loans and perks for individual, local African politicians. African countries became client states and remain so, with their leaders making sure that under no circumstances would any African country or individual rise to ever dare challenge the supremacy of the West and their allies.
  
  It is in this context that I applaud PEC. My advice to PEC, though, would be to go further than this declaration and educate the citizenry at large about Africa's past and what lessons we can learn from that past. It will help re-orient the population to a different future than the current lack of direction on the continent. Restriction of contrary ideas through censorship is counterproductive. Yes, mount a positive image of our heroes, but do not repress alternative perspectives. Beat the reactionary self-loathing images with images that are positive, attractive and authentically African.

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• AL KHEBAB GHANA CHAPTER 11 years ago

  GREAT MOVE! KEEP IT UP. THE IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR NEO-COLONIALIST PUNKS LIKE BRITAIN AND MAHAMA HAVE NO PLACE IN GHANA AND AFRICA. KEEP ON FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!!!

  GREAT MOVE! KEEP IT UP. THE IMPERIALISTS AND THEIR NEO-COLONIALIST PUNKS LIKE BRITAIN AND MAHAMA HAVE NO PLACE IN GHANA AND AFRICA. KEEP ON FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!!!

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• Teacher under tree 11 years ago

  Nkrumah does not deserve this trivialisation of his reputation and integrity by petty-minded and ignorant students in the shape of the PEC. Your attempts to airbrush history belong to a Stalinist era which deservedly vanished ...
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  Nkrumah does not deserve this trivialisation of his reputation and integrity by petty-minded and ignorant students in the shape of the PEC. Your attempts to airbrush history belong to a Stalinist era which deservedly vanished decades ago. Why don't you instead concentrate your energies on obtaining educational materials of direct benefit to the young people you pretend to care about?

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• KWABENA OHEMENG,LONDON. 11 years ago

  I bet you the NPP will strongly fight against this move.Being a neo-colonisalist party which is very subservient to the West it will never support any move which paints Osagyefo as a hero and colonialism as evil.Their forefat ...
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  I bet you the NPP will strongly fight against this move.Being a neo-colonisalist party which is very subservient to the West it will never support any move which paints Osagyefo as a hero and colonialism as evil.Their forefathers fought against Osagyefo spearheading the fight for Ghana's independence and supported the obnoxious apartheid regime in South Africa which the colonialists supported .It is a total disgrace and an abomination that more than 60 years after independence we still have books which glorify colonialism,the exploitation of our resources and the misuse of African labour to develop the colonialist nations and vilify our own leaders and culture.THE GREATEST DANGER FACING AFRICA IS THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE BY AFRICANS ABOUT WHY OUR PAST LEADERS GOT RID OF COLONIAL RULE IN AFRICA AND A HISTORY WHICH GLORIFIES COLONIALSIM WHICH IS THE BEDROCK OF AFRICA'S UNDERDEVELOPMENT.

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• GHANABA 11 years ago

  AFTER SAYING ALL THAT CRAP,YOU LEFT GHANA TO GO AND LIVE IN LONDON.ARE YOU ALRIGHT IN YOUR THINKING CAP?

  AFTER SAYING ALL THAT CRAP,YOU LEFT GHANA TO GO AND LIVE IN LONDON.ARE YOU ALRIGHT IN YOUR THINKING CAP?

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• shiatse 11 years ago

  This is rubbish, the timeline of education in Ghana will always begin with the colonial masters because it was the inception of formal education in Ghana. If we remove it what will you tell students? what about the Cambridge ...
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  This is rubbish, the timeline of education in Ghana will always begin with the colonial masters because it was the inception of formal education in Ghana. If we remove it what will you tell students? what about the Cambridge and London city and guilds exams. There are important issues to bring to the minister than this rubbish. Lets talk about lack of data driving education in Ghana.

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• OBIBINI 11 years ago

  Nonsense !!Are the British not glorifying colonialism in history lessons taught in british schools?What benefit did colonialism bring to us that we should give it a plac e of honour in the history of Ghana.The main thrust of ...
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  Nonsense !!Are the British not glorifying colonialism in history lessons taught in british schools?What benefit did colonialism bring to us that we should give it a plac e of honour in the history of Ghana.The main thrust of colonialism was domination and exploitation.Why should we glorify colonialism at the expense of our past leaders and the dignity of Ghana?

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• Galley P Dzokoto 11 years ago

  educational material must be designed in our industrial potentials set up. what's the purpose of teaching our children to learn to know which country's the world's leading producer of wool when keta students don't know a fish ...
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  educational material must be designed in our industrial potentials set up. what's the purpose of teaching our children to learn to know which country's the world's leading producer of wool when keta students don't know a fishing net is ?

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• Abeeku Mensah 11 years ago

  The problem is not solely with textbooks but with competency of our teachers from K12 through technical to our universities. Since colonial days, Ghana's students have been indoctrinated to be obedient and accept any bull fro ...
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  The problem is not solely with textbooks but with competency of our teachers from K12 through technical to our universities. Since colonial days, Ghana's students have been indoctrinated to be obedient and accept any bull from teachers as authority. This status quo made it highly unlikely for students at any level to challenge teachers when those teachers are not only wrong with facts but also when they bring along their personal biases to bear.
  For example, with the very books we have on history a resourceful teacher could get around to proving their very inaccuracies by allowing and encouraging students to explore and debate issues raised therein. On what basis was Nkrumah perceived to be dictatorial and or relative to what system? If Nkrumah is deemed to have led a dictatorial government then a resourceful teacher could draw his style and substances to our very colonial masters who did not want Ghanaians to be free and or be equal to their kind at any level on the social scale. Were those colonial master dictators? Would anyone show a nation on the face of the earth historically and or presently where all its citizens are on equal footing and there are no social stratified classes? Is there any nation where the elite class (be it political or socially) do not overrule the minority on ideas and ideals?
  What we have are teachers who do memorize and regurgitate written facts to obtain their degrees at most levels of education and thus lack the ability to make their pupils think logically. At the university level in Ghana, we have PhD holders as lecturers who do not tolerate students capable of thinking or having ideas and ideals that are equally challenging and viable that may run counter to their own thought processes or prepared lecture notes. These lecturers are more likely to intentionally fail a student to show “who is the boss” in a classroom while the university systems are ill prepared to deal with disciplinary issues covering their own created all-knowing and all–powerful lecturing staff.
  We are unable to grow our business base in Ghana irrespective of the number of years and student we graduate because our graduating students are mostly incapable of thinking freely or engaging in logical thought processes to arrive at any meaningful ideas and ideals. Most graduates are thus textbook smart but lack creatively and cannot question what things are what they are. Textbooks alone should not stifle the conscience of a nation and allowing textbooks written by our very colonial masters to shape and dictate our collective thoughts shows our failure to imagine. No wonder or movies, books and imaginations are limited.

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• kofi 11 years ago

  it is a shame they wrote their petition in English instead of writing it in all the 50plus languages in Ghana.Can they give the language of the colonial masters back? "useful idiots"

  it is a shame they wrote their petition in English instead of writing it in all the 50plus languages in Ghana.Can they give the language of the colonial masters back? "useful idiots"

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• Whatever 11 years ago

  We can't have books that glorifies our suffering. It's insensitive

  We can't have books that glorifies our suffering. It's insensitive

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• kofi 11 years ago

  Whereas Kenya is spending $1.3 billion in solar energy to improve their lives,our clever dicks want us to spend the same on re writing history.It makes you proud to be a Ghanaian...doesn"t it? we do not live in the USSR.

  Whereas Kenya is spending $1.3 billion in solar energy to improve their lives,our clever dicks want us to spend the same on re writing history.It makes you proud to be a Ghanaian...doesn"t it? we do not live in the USSR.

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