Dear Friend, Relative, Political Brother & Sister and
Wife-To-Be,
It's always
a privilege for me to share what I think to people like you because of our
friendship and relationship.
I believe
"free SHS" is actually NOT what Ghana needs.
This
is what I think we need.
What we need is a "sensible and smart" education system that:
- efficiently detect brilliant but needy students and support
them. What it means is that you do not pay for someone who can easily afford
it and you pay for the ones who need it. This makes funding more sustainable
and there will be less stress on the funds.
- is managed by a non-political commission of
researchers, scientists, educationists, education advocates, teachers and
students. (We have already witnessed the failures and disappointments that
politicians have caused especially the NDC and the NPP. Civil society has to
wrestle and gain control over the management of our education system.)
- is culturally relevant and consistent in understanding
and appropriately shaping the typical "Ghanaian mind". A wrong
attitude in a right environment is just as bad as nothing.
- trains students on what industry needs NOW and in the
FUTURE. We better be educating for the future and not for yesterday.
- has a well defined goal (A goal that tells us
"WHAT AT ALL" we want to achieve with our education)
I did not mention teachers for a reason. They are part of
the players in the education sphere whose performance is subject to the
requirements and expectations of the administrative and operational structures
within the ENTIRE SYSTEM
When you have an efficient system it automatically checks
and corrects non-performance, corruption and mismanagement.
We do not have to buy books because education is
synonymous to books, chalks and pencils. We have to buy books because it is
just a means of transforming information to knowledge and making a child
functionally and relevantly literate.
We do not have to buy computers because everybody in the
world today is using a computer. We have to buy computers because they
significantly make teaching and learning more interactive and practical and
because it offers the biggest platform known to man for independent learning.
We should not outlaw the use of mobile devices in schools
simply because we think it "spoils" a child. That is a narrow
thought.
We might have killed innovation with our own mindset and
the earlier we realize how hypocritical we have been the better for us.
What makes a politician think his party members are the
only "sensible" people in Ghana. We need to address this.
Everybody is talking change. Nobody is willing to be the
first change.
We have defined - in practice - that education takes
place in the school. Such a myopic view we have. Our education does not expand
to life-long learning and definitely it has to!
As you read this; there's probably a teacher sexually
harassing a student. I am talking about safe schools.
As you think "what on earth am I talking
about?", there are tens of thousands of children in Ghana who find it
extremely difficult to learn and whose parents whack their heads with objects
and whose teachers whip them mercilessness for no fault of theirs - all because
they suffer from dyslexia (a reading disability that occurs when the brain does
not properly recognize and process certain symbols)
So you see, there is a system of systems waiting for us
to look at, touch it, feel it, taste it, understand it and change it.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr. I'mStillLearning
(Thanks for reading) :-)
Towards
a better society!
Thank you too for this. Drawing attention to the issues of children with disability and sexual abuse in schools is a 'real' discussion of education. Not the limited extent to which the NDC/NPP have debated it so far. Unfortunately the parties have led the debate so far but real action has to come from greater collaboration/discussions between students, workers and civil society activists within networks or organisations. Otherwise it will be more of the same for some time to come.
ReplyDelete