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Educational Revolution, War We Must Win !!

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 Source: Innocent, Ivan Kyei

Dear Dr. Richard Tia, Dpt. of Chemistry, KNUST......

I have been reading with keen interest reaction you made attempting to rubbish "made for laughter" comments made by a gentleman which has gone viral on social media questioning the quality of syllabus defining educational system in Ghana.

Dr. without prejudice or malice to your submissions, I think your reaction to this "fun orientated screams" by the young man was  rather emotionally charged and fails to address the  actual problem challenging education which is "time exhaustion of syllabus" or call it archaic, l don't intend to do technical analysis but to speak with the voice the ordinary man will appreciate.

I appreciate the concise and the precise nature of your argument which gives a detail account of pie r square from a professional perspective and how this concept has aided in the generation of energy and other useful amenities we enjoy today, my first questions is how many of these amenities we enjoy was made by trained brains from Ghana ?

KNUST was established solely for technological studies and since its establishment, can we pinpoint or mention a single megawatt of power the institution through this pie r square formulae has generated for this country despite producing wagons of professors and doctors wearing tons of degrees in various technical areas?

KNUST as a university cannot generate its own energy to ease the unending pressure on national grid. Through this pie r square things, how many computers have been manufactured in Ghana even though that's the purpose for which Nkrumah established the institution, Ghana becoming a hub of technological advancement but sadly over 40 to 50 years of this great vision, not even a touch-light or dog chain is built. This sad situation to me, justifies the rants of a man walking on the streets whose taxes are used to feed these institutions and its professors.

I do appreciate the importance of these mathematical language, because if nothing at all , it tickles or provokes deep thinking and critical reasoning. But as learned community how have we been able to liaise and position these terminologies to  have a direct impact on our development?

Have we bothered to ask ourselves why various corporations prefer re-hiring the old brains due for retirement instead of fresh graduates? Education  has assumed imprecise direction which is a worry to observers and watchers in the realms of objectivity.

Dr. I believe you know this obvious reality.

Are we saying students drawing grasshopper and lizards at second cycle institutions is the only way of broadening the horizon of students in the filed of sciences when indeed in other jurisdictions their competitors are building drones, smartphones, smartphone apps, computers and nuclear arsenals.

Isn't is embarrassing that I'm still learning things my grandfather was taught at school back in the 70's instead of reviewing the curriculum to fit the emerging goodies from modern scientific advancement.

Let me give you a familiar trend which l believe many students are privy to, lecture notes prepared for 1995 students in various schools were the same notes given to class of 2000, verbatim. This may sound wired but it's true.

Majority of our teachers and lectures do not review their notes given to students, this reality is far from any cynical conjuncture.

I understand our hospitals and health professionals are doing a great job but if you go to some  healthcare facilities there you Â

would appreciate the p overty of knowledge and practical infractions choking the system.Â

Patients with different diagnosis and conditions all take home with the same medications, a common phenomenon in Ghana. Sometimes understanding the complex nature of human systems has resulted in several cases of misdiagnosis, a situation which force many doctors to poison patients with unneeded drugs. So instead of drawing frog, grasshopper and lizards  at the secondary schools, we can start teaching the anatomy and physiology of the human system and go a bit deeper at this level so those who enroll to medicine class in the future will benefit from this pull of knowledge created and build on.

Isn't it troubling that a healthy patient may at times, l said "may at times" Walk to a health facility for medical review and return home in either coffin or body bag.

Countries like China medications are given to patients having sepsis only when the causative organism is isolated. Almost every patient who visit our hospital go home with paracetamol and Fragyl...are we learning to build a nation or we are learning to destroy our society? In the face of these medical atrocities claiming innocent lives on daily basis, Â no measure is taken to quiz the sad development.

Yes we lack the infrastructure for quality diagnosis and treatment but we are good as people with leaders wearing tons of degrees earmarking GHC20million for a day celebration, dubbed Ghana @60, paying dubious judgement debt, leaders riding in expensive Mercedes reserved for the affluent few. I think we should rather be mourning @60 instead of jubilating.

Yes we have all the doctors and professors emeritus in Ghana yet Chinese contractors build our roads and stadia when indeed we cannot even build a lawn. Dr. are we not failing as intellectuals?

How many of those copper wires you mentioned in your explanation were made by our people, yet same Ghanaians get opportunity to travel outside to do great things, Â an indication that our system is sick and dying.

We are indeed fading out from the modern intelligence community unless otherwise we are being disingenuous to the reality.

Dr. Let me hasten to add that my response to the first part of your submission is not as results of my earlier opinion expressed on the development.

I believe building a better Ghana requires building intellectual consensus on the way forward, even though as a young man still in the university, l have my doubt or I'm again very pessimistic about the future of this country, because when l look up I see bleak instead hope, despair instead of optimism and l believe this unfortunate orientation hanging around my perception about our country is aided by poor leadership, narrowed nature of our academic empire, the disconnect between academia and the innovative society. There's no redemptive alternative aside change, this is my only hope as a Ghanian.

Isn't it disturbing that we hire Chinese contractors to build our stadia, they build them so bad that when it rains every single drop of the rain is retained on the pitch yet same people build stadia somewhere in Europe and America and the situation is different because they know that if such shoddy work is done they will not be paid or the cost will be reimburse to them  but Ghana and Africa, we have leaders who will happily pay them without delays.

Are we not backward thinking people?

Go to Accra sports stadium and see things for yourself ....

Time will not permit me to respond to all the concerns because l have a lecture to catch.

I have no intention or whatsoever of impugning your integrity and  from my construct you will appreciate I'm far below your level of intelligence and expertise but l still believe as a young man I'm entitled to contribute to debates encircling the future of my generation.

 I sincerely believe we all have to redirect our anger to building a conscious and awaken Ghana. God bless our homeland Ghana.

(Ivan Kyei Innocent 2017)

Columnist: Innocent, Ivan Kyei