Its been nearly 20years since Ghana adopted the multy party system of governance and all these political parties boast of huge investment in the educational sector. But I ask, "should education be politicized?"
The standard of education has fallen drastically from performance to infrastructure. The educational system has seen many changes in the past few years thus from 3years to 4years and from 4years to 3years. Syllabus keep changing aswell. The current government made a political campaign with the education of Ghana by promising quality education and the elimination schools under trees in 2012. But the question is "Do we have the quality education as promised on the campaign ground or have all schools under trees been eliminated?" and the answer is a big "NO".
Just recently in the Bosomtwi District of the Ashanti region, I realise that the pupils of Aputuegya study under tree. They are not the only school though but their case unique. This is because pupils carry chairs from their class to study under trees because their newly constructed classroom which was completed about a year ago cannot be used because it has not been commissioned and pupil still have to sit under trees and study. The only thing that seperate the tree and the road is a gutter and I wonder how they can concerntrate. Also in Greater Accra Region specifically Tupaa M/A primary near Obom has been having classes under trees for some years now and yet we talk of quality education.
Sometimes I wonder if we are really serious about our education as a nation. Before the introduction of allowances in the training colleges, teaching wasn't lucrative thus making the education sector lack teachers. But the introduction of allowances brought back the onces mother of all works. The training colleges started providing the educational sector with over thousand teachers every year. 8,732 teacher trainees graduated in 2012 and has been made possible by the introduction of the allowances. Lets ask ourselves whether this number will increase after the allowances have been scrapped or decreased. How can we talk of quality education when the necessary basic equiment needed like chalks, lesson notes, syllabus, teachers etc are inadequate. And just recently it has been reported that all pupil teachers thus the untrainned teachers will be sacked. There is an Akan proverb which literally means "If the animals who went to graze are not back, we dont send the rest out" but if the report is anything to go by, then it means we are depriving the already deprived schools and pupils, teachers and the quality education they need.
Its high time we get a national agend or policy to guide the educational system in Ghana so that no government can do whatever they want with our education. let us not forget that "The road to someday, leads to the town of nowhere". So we can start from nowhere and get to our destination. Long live Mother Ghana.
by: Nana Kwesi Amponsah Aboagye
