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Do less
Former Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Michael Kenneth Nsowah, advised a trimming of the educational curriculum. “Why should children at a tender age be made to write exams in nine subjects?” He said that by trying to do too much, the quality of the education suffers. Nsowah admitted that it’s tempting to try to educate students about as much as possible, but, with education, it seems that every attempt to solve today’s problems plants the seeds for tomorrow’s. Students are no longer strong in a couple areas; they are now mediocre in many.
As an alternative, Nsowah encouraged other agencies within society to get involved in educating pupils. “Why must the school teach everything in the classroom?” he wondered. Now that we appear to have found the breaking point for the traditional curriculum, it makes sense to consider ways that other agencies can fill gaps.
Mahama speaks to education while campaigning
The campaign trail took President Mahama back to his alma mater, the University of Ghana. At the event attended mostly by students, Mahama highlighted what his NDC government has achieved already and what it will accomplish if elected for a second term. On the subject of job creation, Mahama said the “first responsibility is to create the right environment for the private sector to grow. The government’s second responsibility is to make sure that graduates come out with the right skills for the world of work.” The “right skills,” he said, are increasingly changing in response to the demands of the job market. Additionally, he insisted that replacing the teacher trainee allowance with the student loan was the right move.
Sticking to it
If you recall, a couple of weeks ago the GES expressed frustration over unapproved actions by school officials. This week they acted on that frustration, firing a headmaster for charging students unauthorized fees. The termination occurred at St. Augustine’s College in the Central Region, where headmaster Joseph Connel charged first year students GH¢430 in excess of the government-approved fees. Kor was clear that he would continue trying to cleanse this type of the behavior from the educational system. Hopefully school officials heed his advice.
NPP focus on STEM
Nana Akufo-Addo, head of the opposition NPP, recommended that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) should be at the center of the Ghanaian education system. “All the countries in the world that have made the transformation that we are committed to doing in Ghana have had to pass through that route. It’s extremely important for us in Ghana to come to an understanding that this has to be the goal for us,” he explained. He reasoned that making this transition would rearrange the dynamics of the state from being one led by the government to one where empowered citizens lead the way by achieving their potential.
Teacher unions: public schools need more money
Teacher unions are imploring the government to provide more funding for the public schools, particularly at the basic level. They claim that the lack infrastructural development in the public schools condemns them to a poor quality of education—in a nation where 60% of the public schools have no labs or running water, it’s sort of hard to argue against them. And the effects of these structurally and resource weak schools is doubly detrimental for educational development when considering, as the unions claim, that low-fee private schools are popping up left and right with more aesthetically pleasing facilities but less-qualified teachers. If the basic public schools can become more physically and structurally capable, they argue, the quality of education will improve.
Increase capital market literacy
CEOs of major financial institutions involved in capital markets have called on the government to do more to educate Ghanaians on the securities industry. They spoke of the benefits that a strong capital market can have on a developing economy like Ghana. However, these benefits cannot be realized if people don’t understand the capital markets. And people won’t—and shouldn’t—participate in the capital markets if they aren’t educated on them. In short, their point was that it’s in Ghana’s best interest for citizens to understand securities markets.
Colleges of Education teaming up
The Saint Vincent College of Education and the Al-Faruq College of Education have both signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Education, Winneba (UEW). The MoU would enable UEW to support the two universities enhance their capabilities to improve teaching and learning.
SHS struggles in the North
A report released by the Northern Development Forum (NDF) revealed the relatively poor performance of the Upper West, Upper East, and Norther Regions in the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). In each of the past ten years, these three regions have placed in the eight, ninth, and tenth (out of ten) among the regions. Accordingly, while respectful of their current efforts, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini, called on the government to “not lose sight of the need to bridge the gap in education between the north and the south of Ghana.”
This week in private sector help: Vivo Energy
Vivo Energy Ghana Limited has donated 1,000 books to the GES Accra office. The books are to be disbursed throughout the greater Ghana region. Ghanaians in the loosely-defined publishing industry ought to be particularly fond of this initiative: the books donated are storybooks written, illustrated, and published by Ghanaians.
Also…
Minister of Education, Professor Opoku Agyemang, is encouraging educational institutions to ensure that all teachers participate in “refresher programs” to keep their knowledge and skills sharp.
Stakeholders have complained to the GES about centralized student ID issuance, mainly for instances of missed deadlines.
The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has signed a concessional loan agreement with Ghana to provide $24 million for the expansion of 26 senior high schools.
BECE candidates without placement—due to having low raw scores—will be given a list of schools with vacancies to choose from this week. They obviously won’t be getting their first choice, but something is better than nothing, right?
University of Ghana turned down 15,140 qualified applicants this year, a sign that the college process is getting more and more competitive—and this is good for the system, though I’m not sure the rejected applicants would agree.