The current educational system the
world over which is based on the Prussian model came into being in late 18th
century. The basic aim of the Prussian model was to teach basic technical
skills such as reading and writing, but also music (singing) and religious
(Christian) education in close cooperation with the churches. In Ghana, the
initial aim of education was to educate children that the slave masters had
with their African wives and to train people to spread the gospel. A lot has
changed since then but our educational system remains the same in terms of what
it seeks to achieve. This has resulted in a huge disconnect between the quality
of graduate produced and the quality of work force industries require. There
has being lots of attempts to reform education in Ghana but no attempts have
been made to transform it.
There is a huge difference between these
two words; to reform something is to make changes in order to improve it.
However, to transform means to make a marked change in the form, nature, or
appearance of an institution. This means that all previous attempts made as far
as education reforms was concerned were to make slight changes to an already
existing system that did not work. It is very clear that this approach to
changing education has done little to improve our system that continues to produce
dysfunctional graduates. So what must education seek to achieve in the 21st century?
21st Century Education
In his book Creative Schools, author
and 21st century education guru Sir Ken Robinson emphasize that education
should be about helping kids discover talents and interests that lie within
them. He considers this absolutely critical. Secondly it should help them
understand the world around them so they can become compassionate and
productive citizens. The era where schools were modelled along the assembly
line concept where students are grouped according to the date of manufacture
(Date of birth) has outlived its usefulness. What we require in the 21st
century is an education system that groups children in terms of their
capabilities and helps unearth the hidden talent in each child. Therefore, the one
size fit all approach to educating our children only guarantees us a nation of
individuals enduring life instead of enjoying life. For this to be realized, key
stakeholders such as government, schools, parents and teachers must know the
roles and play them well. So what must key stakeholders such as government,
schools, teachers and parents do to realize this objective.
Government
Governments over the years have made
education in this country a political issue. As the framers of educational
policies they should be seen to be neutral. Governments must also ensure that
schools are equipped with the right material and human resources.
Unfortunately, governments over the years have not helped much. In an era where
digital technologies are being used all over the world to get education to the majority
of people, broadband internet is still very expensive and a luxury in Ghana. In
an era where coding (programming) is considered a right in some jurisdiction to
be as important as reading and numeracy, we still continue to lag behind as a
nation. Our ICT curriculum in basic schools only end up equipping students with
basic computer literacy skills instead of programming skills that have wider
application in the world. What our government must do is to ensure that there
is electricity and internet access in every basic school in Ghana and also
introduce basic programming into the ICT curriculum. By sending broad band
internet to our school, students can begin to learn on their own even if there
are no teachers physically present. There are lots of massive open online
courses on platforms like Khan Academy, Edx, Coursera that
can be utilized by students to learn on their own.
Schools
Schools must create the right
environment that enables balanced, individualized and creative
approaches to learning. In that sense over concentration of the STEM (Science,
technology, engineering and mathematics) only seeks to kill the creativity of
students with other skills. It is rather sad that most schools in Accra and
other municipalities do not have any avenues where students with talent in the
creative arts and sports can flourish. When I was in JHS, the teachers in my
school ignorantly advised us on which courses we should choose based our scores
in class and not based on our talent. This has lead to many of us ending up in
professions we do not have passion for. Some educators even create the
impression that some subjects are more important than others instead of putting
equal premium on each subject. Students who perform well in subjects such as humanities
and the arts are not given as much praise as their colleagues who do well in
the sciences. Schools must encourage each student irrespective of their talent.
Teachers
The role of the teacher in the
education process cannot be overemphasized. Of the four major stakeholders, a
good education can still thrive without three of them; government, schools and
parents. Therefore education cannot take place without the principal actors who
are the teachers whether physically present or online. Teachers are very important
to any success story in education since they are at the forefront of the
educational system. Unfortunately, what we see in most school systems is that
teachers are poorly motivated and disrespected. This has ended up creating
teachers who are not satisfied on the job, no wonder most of them end up
leaving the profession when they find other opportunities elsewhere. There is
the need for schools to do all within their means to keep their human capital
which is its most important asset. This can be achieved through regular training
to help them improve on the teaching skills and good salaries. The role of
teachers as a repository of knowledge is fast changing to those who can help facilitate
learning and guide children to learn on their own.
Parents
Parents play an important role in
their children’s education; first because they themselves are their first
teachers of these children. However, most parents are not changing with the
times. They are offering the same advice and approach to parenting like their
great grandparents did. Instead of parents to carefully monitor their children
and look out for the things they naturally enjoy doing, most parents prefer to
impose their chosen careers on their children. What this does to that child is
that they go through their entire life doing what their parents wanted and not
what they are passionate about. Some parents are so obsessed with money that
they hardly spend any quality time with the kids to know their interest. What parents
must do is to liaise with teachers to know the talent and passion of their
wards and create the necessary environment by means of encouragement, advice
and funding to enable them develop these talents. What we rather tend to see is
parents discouraging their children from pursuing their passion in certain
fields especially the arts. We have all heard about numerous stars of today whose
parents used any means including beating them up to discourage them from
pursuing their passion to rather go to school and learn how to memorize stuff.
I remember an interview where Samuel Osei Kufour, a former Bayern Munich and
Blackstars of Ghana defender, narrated how as a young boy he was advised to
desist from playing football by his mum but later ended up as one of the best
defenders in world football. As a teacher, unfortunately what you notice when you meet parents is their
obsession with marks. I am not seeking to say that parents should not show
concern when their kids don’t do well in school but rather what I seek to put
across is that you cannot measure a child’s intelligence or how they will turn
out in life based on school test. There is a lot more to the intelligence of a
child than just basing it on test scores. I will throw more light on ways schools can get the best out of their
children in subsequent articles.
The author is an educational consultant and IT teacher at Tema
International School. He can be reached on 0200112201 or email at
ericampah2003@gmail.com
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