Tema residents applaud government’s educational reforms

Some residents in Tema Metropolis have commended the government’s educational reforms especially adding value to the first and second cycle educational system.

In an interaction with Ghana News Agency at Tema, scores of the residents said the introduction of the school feeding programme and the free Senior High School had increased the number of students in the secondary school leading to a decrease in school drop-outs.

According to them, the initiative had reduced the burden on parents who could not afford school fees and food for their wards.

Some of the residents, however, noted that the rapid transformation of society through the window of information, communication and technology had been a mixed blessing.

“We are losing our culture, norms and traditions as a people and have strangely adopted the western culture. In the early 70’s to 90’s, there was discipline in our schools.

“When you are late to school you would be lashed, right after assembly we had something called mental and in the afternoon dictation, when you get the questions wrong you would be lashed and do correction, you would re-write until you get it correct,” some residents recounted.

Mrs Faustina Ofori-Nyako, a retired educationist said, sometimes one was tempted to deduce that formal education came for the rich, but not the less privileged in the society.

She said only the rich were able to send their children to the best school and read courses like Medicine, Law, Engineering.

She continued that some children are brilliant, but because their parents are in financial difficulty, they end up shattering their dreams, but now with the free SHS, the problem is somehow resolved.

Mr Edmund Tetteh, an auto mechanic recounted to the GNA that growing up he had wanted to be a lawyer, but ended up as an auto mechanic all because of poverty.

“Today, there are laws that ensure that parents send their children to school, today it’s a computer, which does the placement, so children from remote areas can go to this famous school and also choose their dream courses,” he said.

Mr Palmore Dugbartey a hairdresser blamed the discipline among a section of the youth on globalization and the education system, now children spend more time in school than in the house.

Maame Afua Owarewa, a trader on her side said, in our time we used our mind as a calculator to do arithmetic in the examination hall, but everything have changed in the name of modernization.

“Now in society, our mothers who had formal education, when it comes to calculations and spelling do not venture, that is what we are missing now mental alertness,” she said.