Our Rights
Education – Do We Really Care
By Mardey Ohui Ofoe
Education is the light of darkness. A nation cannot dream of development if education is less thought of.
Quality education delivery remains Ghana’s hope of reducing the high level of poverty in the society as well as becoming competitive in today’s knowledge driven globalized economy.
This isn’t the talk about completing Jss and finding work to do, even thought if this offer was available, to the citizenry, then it will be obvious that the employees of the state are working on behalf of the people.
The combination of education youth and sports issues into one ministry needs explanation to free the thinking that this has not greatly compromised literacy level in Ghana. Government schools have become outlets for poor and violence children.
In spite of the fact that Ghana’s education system has come far and made the nation what it is today, the increasing challenges of the twenty-first century demands that we re-engineer our educational system to make it more developmental. The education system of developing countries cannot afford but the training of professionals and entrepreneurs to build a workforce that manufactures.
One of the strategic stakeholders of education are teachers who are neglected and unfortunately are among the poorest people on the African continent. If a country has 41% of male and 34% of female educated at the secondary level, which is not a guarantee of one’s ability to read and write then we are retrogressing to our graves.
Most sociologists have said that the best way of accessing a society is the number of its people in prisons. How do we expect democratic development if the citizens cannot read nor write. How can communities make inputs if they cannot bridge the communicating barrier?
The World Bank structural adjustment program in developing countries came with the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education policy, which has not succeeded in eliminating illiteracy in Ghana.
The task before the Educational Sector Review Committee and the Presidential Review Committee on Education to make education free is laudable. Yet we should not be left deeper into the waters by trumpeting free education and yet providing zero logistics to enhance basic teaching and learning
Some of the laws, policy documents and reports, that were supposedly designed to provide accessible quality education includes .The Education Act of 1961, The Dzobo Report of 1973 (Recommended the JSS Concept), The New Structure and Content of Education 1974, The Education Commission Report on Basic and Secondary Education 1987/88. The Education Reform Programme 1987/88, The University Relationalization Committee Report 1988, The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme, 1996. (1992 Constitution) The FCUBE Policy Document and Programme of Operations, 1996 and The Ghana Education Trust Fund - GET Fund Act 2000. (Act 581) have made their contributions and yet failed the people of Ghana in providing them basic education. What good has been done when the average Ghanaian student who has completed JSS can neither read nor writes a language?
Thank you to all those who have worked to make Ghana’s educational system a basic working one. Yet we cannot be proud of what we have. I have countless times met young women who are willing to read and write a book, yet they are so limited and lost of the ability to do so.
For about 90% of students, the completion of JJS and SSS is only a mere formality. A procedure to petty trading, a license to impregnate a woman and an opportunity to become mothers of children who’s future are liabilities to the country that made them.
Education is the key to development and teachers are the key to education. Any country that does not recognize its teachers, not by just giving award to a few ones who have worked hard to make impacts, but by seeking the total welfare of teachers, then we must be seeking the end of our times.
By Mardey Ohui Ofoe
Education is the light of darkness. A nation cannot dream of development if education is less thought of.
Quality education delivery remains Ghana’s hope of reducing the high level of poverty in the society as well as becoming competitive in today’s knowledge driven globalized economy.
This isn’t the talk about completing Jss and finding work to do, even thought if this offer was available, to the citizenry, then it will be obvious that the employees of the state are working on behalf of the people.
The combination of education youth and sports issues into one ministry needs explanation to free the thinking that this has not greatly compromised literacy level in Ghana. Government schools have become outlets for poor and violence children.
In spite of the fact that Ghana’s education system has come far and made the nation what it is today, the increasing challenges of the twenty-first century demands that we re-engineer our educational system to make it more developmental. The education system of developing countries cannot afford but the training of professionals and entrepreneurs to build a workforce that manufactures.
One of the strategic stakeholders of education are teachers who are neglected and unfortunately are among the poorest people on the African continent. If a country has 41% of male and 34% of female educated at the secondary level, which is not a guarantee of one’s ability to read and write then we are retrogressing to our graves.
Most sociologists have said that the best way of accessing a society is the number of its people in prisons. How do we expect democratic development if the citizens cannot read nor write. How can communities make inputs if they cannot bridge the communicating barrier?
The World Bank structural adjustment program in developing countries came with the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education policy, which has not succeeded in eliminating illiteracy in Ghana.
The task before the Educational Sector Review Committee and the Presidential Review Committee on Education to make education free is laudable. Yet we should not be left deeper into the waters by trumpeting free education and yet providing zero logistics to enhance basic teaching and learning
Some of the laws, policy documents and reports, that were supposedly designed to provide accessible quality education includes .The Education Act of 1961, The Dzobo Report of 1973 (Recommended the JSS Concept), The New Structure and Content of Education 1974, The Education Commission Report on Basic and Secondary Education 1987/88. The Education Reform Programme 1987/88, The University Relationalization Committee Report 1988, The Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education Programme, 1996. (1992 Constitution) The FCUBE Policy Document and Programme of Operations, 1996 and The Ghana Education Trust Fund - GET Fund Act 2000. (Act 581) have made their contributions and yet failed the people of Ghana in providing them basic education. What good has been done when the average Ghanaian student who has completed JSS can neither read nor writes a language?
Thank you to all those who have worked to make Ghana’s educational system a basic working one. Yet we cannot be proud of what we have. I have countless times met young women who are willing to read and write a book, yet they are so limited and lost of the ability to do so.
For about 90% of students, the completion of JJS and SSS is only a mere formality. A procedure to petty trading, a license to impregnate a woman and an opportunity to become mothers of children who’s future are liabilities to the country that made them.
Education is the key to development and teachers are the key to education. Any country that does not recognize its teachers, not by just giving award to a few ones who have worked hard to make impacts, but by seeking the total welfare of teachers, then we must be seeking the end of our times.

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