WAS GHANA’S EDUCATION REFORM NECESSARY?

I heard a popular saying, “A school can never rise above its quality of teachers”, and I have been in deep thought since hearing of this statement. How true is this? How can it be? Why is that so? And so many questions run through my mind as I ponder on this, especially in the context of our Ghanaian educational system.

Funnily enough, I continue to have more questions than answers while I probe for answers. A few weeks ago, my younger brother called me and asked if I could find an Information Technology firm for him to do his internship because it was compulsory as part of his first year study requirement in Senior High School. I asked him which course and specific subjects he was studying. Truth be told, I could not make out about 90% of them. My first instinct was to ask for his teacher’s contact for further clarification. It may not be surprising to a lot of people when I say the teacher didn’t seem to have a hang of the new developments in subjects. So, just as you may be thinking, I also asked how he will teach these subjects.

English, Mathematics, social studies, science, economics, geography, government, ICT, music and what have you. Almost everyone, even those who have not stepped foot for a second in a classroom can rant out these subjects. These and more are the subjects we have known from time immemorial but in a space of about 2 years, a 14-member ministerial advisory committee developed a new educational framework, finalized in 2019, that has changed the future of Ghanaian education forever. Yes, it is true we are in a fast-growing world and there is an increased hunger for knowledge. In fact, it is stipulated that the volume of knowledge was doubling every 12 hours in 2020, the doubling rate used to be 25 years in 1945. Speed with which technology is progressing is the driver which is upending our careers, transforming lives and disrupting economies.

But the two questions that hang several minds and scream for answers are, “How ready were we? And “What measures were put in place?” These crucial questions should have underlined our actions for educational reforms so that in our quest to meet up with the rest of the world, we don’t lose our vision. Madam. Agyapong Evelyn, an education consultant at Chrysalis Education Ghana, shares her experience with educators while at an educators’ conference. She recounts how none of the educators in the room knew the contents or anything about the new syllabus, obviously a great problem and gap.

Now, how do we teach a syllabus that is expected to be taught a few months after its release? Especially when only a few significant educational personnel in the grassroots were involved in its creation. In the words of Madam Agyapong Evelyn, the people in the creation of this new syllabus were mostly people who had not been in the schools nor the educational sector in a very long while, and had little to no idea about what goes in the schools. There had not been enough training for school leaders, teachers and facilitators, nor had there been enough resources, to facilitate the effective rollout of this new system, but here we are, about five (5) years down the educational lane after the new syllabus was created. Teachers still finding their feet, students struggling to adjust, family members unable to give learning assistance and having to pay for extra classes, and all the other things on this tangent we can think of.

So now, I ask, what is the mission? What is the vision? What is the reason? But more importantly, how prepared were we? Were we ready? Were there facilities and enough human resources? How well has it been beneficial since its establishment? How has it affected the already existing system? How does it fit and prepare students for the current era of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? These are questions that are seemingly ignored, but crucial for greater results. Mind you, I have no intention of playing the devil’s advocate: I agree that these are great piles of knowledge for a fast-growing world, our approach however needs a huge rethinking.

I will end by saying this, the world is dynamic, and knowledge is fast developing, the human needs keep changing and new things emerge every day. It is not harmful to want to live up to these or keep up with new developments, but it is better to get it right slowly and well-calculated than to get it fast but wrongly. For we build futures today, and a strong foundation is better than a nice building that falls in shambles with a little shake.