#Edu4change

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 our friendship and relation-ship.

I believe "free education" is actually NOT what Ghana needs.

This is what I think we need.

What we need is a "sensible" 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 fund.)

- 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 correct 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!