REVISITING THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION

Sunyani might be the city of its location, or Konongo the town. Every big bustling street is familiar with the sight of impeccably pressed school uniforms and tightly-hugging school bags hurriedly walking the morn of every week day; every early driver, with the blithe agility that pounds and tosses splitting school shoes. The cloud of expectation looming before the door of the lecture hall all seems like silence to the outside world as sizeable lumps of hope are ingested with each morsel of breakfast and brains simmer like broth within the elusiveness of the head, cooking up adventures for the coming day

The pompous roar of the lone car whooshing along the vacant street beckons to the sluggish noon. Beneath the large chassis of the broken lorry parked nearby, the strong young mechanic lies with a sound mind, knowing his four-year-old son is yelling nursery rhymes in pre-school. A jittery finger lets go of a little schoolgirls tiny backpack, her skinny legs and feet sheepishly clumped together before the zebra-crossing. She swipes a weak fist across her sparkling eye every now and then, finding childish comfort in the slimy sensation of the phlegm in her running nose. Her hand slowly falls off her slimy face. Its fingers playfully begin to rub the hem of her pinafore, hoping to conjure up for her jumpy insides a little soothing ease. Her little thumb and her shrunken palm squeeze awkwardly on her watery nose, her fearful little mind, dreading the familiar consequences of her unpunctuality. She wishes she were sick and did not have to go to school

Greatly as a nation does our scope of needs identify with the promises of a decent education. We do hold in very high esteem the epitome of this one true legacy left for us by our founding fathers. Our sense of achievement as a nation lies buried in the nested pride of every striving parent who manages to see his children through a considerable standard of education. Before the reader proceeds any further, he must be conscious of this very detail: nations are first made of people and then of governments and both elements of the set have very distinct roles to play in selfless

contribution towards the cause of national development. In this regard, the demonstration of formidable capability on the part of the individual can only be made manifest through the merged benefits of an effective education.

The very being of our nation has been diseased by the fangs of self-induced poverty and blisters of corruption; the growth and stability of our organisation, breaking under the weight of an indissoluble stagnation. The overwhelming challenges, whose threat to our national security is annihilation, must be subjected to severe alleviation if we dream of offering the next generation any better than we were given. It proves to be of profound urgency to do away with fraudulence and impeding dishonesty, as corruption proves to be the vital nourishment of poverty. But how do we fight such an enduring menace that lies so deeply interwoven with the very system of our education?

The lush environment within our elegant school gates proves to be its stronghold, with large stacks of falsified accounts gasping for breath in the briefcases of student representative council leaders. The mornings of the school term hardly bear much fun for the adolescents in high school parading past seldom used government-donated school vehicles and stagnated flimsy structures of uncompleted libraries and assembly halls, with faces looking dull from persistent consumption of a terrible breakfast and reluctant anticipation of the headmasters nagging about the compulsory fee to be paid towards the purchase of a new school bus. The head prefect of the local junior high school usually stands in confusion and respect, with his hands behind his back as the head teacher signs yet another appeal for funds wondering why the cans of beer in the refrigerator in the staff common room had to be bought with the funds he knew the local director of education had intended for textbooks. How does one go about breeding nation builders in an environment infested with dishonesty, where the evil deed is perpetrated by those responsible for the upkeep of the growing mind?

It is about time measures were put in place in our educational institutions to make those in authority accountable to those to whom and for whom they are responsible. This may involve the setting up of an external audit body whose responsibilities will include examining the financial records of government and privately owned educational institutions alike and seeing to it that a detailed record of financial proceedings within the educational institution is periodically delivered not only to the higher authorities, but to the general student-parent body. It will also prove necessary for the student to find it easy to report any incident of intimidation concerning the efforts of the authorities to conceal information that might arouse the interest of the general public. The student should be able to confide in a body that more in deed than in word gives the assurance that the issue of utmost concern to it is the welfare of the student.

God endowed the African with immaculate skill in oratory and inestimable talent of verbal creativity. With these, we bestow upon our monuments and formal institutions elating names that command the awe and admiration of even the most advanced states in the world; the irony often being that the only thing disproving the merit of such an institution, humourously happens to be its very output. The growing number of unemployed graduates has made our awareness oblivious to the severity of the sad norm; the plight of the ambitious student having to conduct credible research on given topics without the necessary books to provide the relevant guidelines; having to go through a whole semesters course on computer programming without as much as a mouse or having to make computers prove useful in the sustained unavailability of electricity. The inefficiency of our inadequate educational facilities is neither sporadic nor a thing of the past. Newscasters saturate the seven oclock slots with talk on the severity of the situation when the outspoken student can no longer contend with the civilised demonstration of displeasure. Our numerous institutions only seem to sit back, on their piles of outdated material constituting their syllabi, waiting to certify the graduates apparent acquisition of the requirements needed to perform

modern tasks requiring special refined skill in the obvious absence of the facilities required to acquire the very skill.

Residents of KNUSTs Katanga, were recently made to individually contribute fourteen Ghana cedis towards an anticipated grand total of fourteen thousand Ghana cedis intended for the restoration of university infrastructure and privately owned property that the residents of Katanga supposedly destroyed. The funds collected were in no way to the benefit of the student, yet the process was highly successful. Why does it seem to elude us that the implementation of similar exercises over considerable numbers of years could endow our institutions with the needed resources for adequate infrastructural development? In return for the free services of a considerable number of students periodically, couldnt various organisations be made to contribute optimally toward the same cause? This would involve a loss to neither parties involved the students can also make do with the working experience.

Far off within the elegant gates of our second and third cycle institutions, the sights bracing the eyes of the visiting stranger irrevocably raise a lot of questions. Education is meant to have a lot to do with decency and one is made to wonder what that has to do with litter dancing in the hallways of the residences of students; dustbins overflowing with rubbish until they dangle half empty at the peak of a heap they are supposed to be carrying. The stranger who frowns in concern may find himself gasping in shock as a dozen students pass by unencumbered; they might seem responsible for this seemingly harmless hazard; in fact they are; but they are not the only guilty ones. They have long suffered the consequences of others negligence.

One might want to pay a disturbing visit to the bathhouses, taking a careful step into the stagnant water on the uneven bathroom floor. The urge to cover ones dilating nostrils should be ignored; it proves useless against the atrocities that lie ahead. The pungent smell of faeces and urine gnawing

at the lungs is a relatively pleasant mixture. It contains fresh air streaming in through the cobwebdraped windows. Besides the strong harsh fumes rising up the sewerage pipes and the slimy tiles on the nearby walls, the bathrooms are pretty clean. The crown lies behind the inscription that reads: TOILET. After a dozen seconds spent trying to muster courage, one might now be bold enough to step in. If it is a senior high school, one will find the first pile of drying faeces jealously guarding its undersized territory, right in the immediate vicinity next to ones shined shoes. Usually the impulsive second look reveals the impressive strategic situations of quite a number of separate kingdoms. One would definitely not find it in ones self to wonder what sort of alien organisms could possibly inhabit the cloudy stream drenching the soiled tissues heaped up in the tiny rooms right corner, with pieces often straying and squeezing themselves beneath the stretchy soles of slippers like carpets made of wet cushion. If the faulty taps are running, the discoloured toilet bowls will be slightly splattered with faeces. The parts of the water closet that man the flushing mechanism will turn out to be broken, their function proving even more inconsequential when the taps cease flowing. Musty faeces will slowly begin piling up to an already soiled and dripping brim a prevalent common phenomenon that has come to be passionately called shit on shit. With the heavy stench parading the corridors giving a summary of situations nearby, the commonly dreaded fate becomes the desire to ease ones self.

Holding ones knees before a dilapidated toilet bowl which one would cringe at the thought of sitting on, the major cause of depression will be finding water for a most urgent bath. That is not to underestimate the work involved in holding ones head tautly up away from the most frustrating stench and slowly rolling ones eyes to partly avoid the dark image of faeces smeared on the painted door. Yes, the student needs to be cultured, with regards to manners. It is always a student whose droppings smear the brim of the toilet bowl and it probably is the same student that smears faeces on the toilets door. But it is not unnatural to act like an animal when subjected to such dehumanizing conditions; especially not after three years have been spent as a boarder in the

secondary school, drinking the oily fluid from metallic tanks and dilapidated pipes choking with rust.

About twenty-four toilet facility units are available for use in my hall of residence. That is about one facility unit per every fifty students. Considering the amount of time we have had as a nation to develop and grow, it is disheartening to think that the sustenance of good health and sanitation in our educational institutions persistently proves to be a challenge.

Even the shortest amongst them tries to stand tall. They are young. They saunter as though they own the world and every second of it. They may flaunt and seem abreast with the all the latest trends in modern fashion, but the youth swarming the tertiary institutions desperately need those degrees. And to attain them, they really do not need to fight the desire to ease themselves or feel the stench of decaying human waste scraping their nasal passages. Someone needs to dig out those dilapidated toilet bowls. Someone needs to renovate the floors and the slimy bathrooms. Someone needs to pull out and replace those sinks. Someone needs to put up new toilet facilities and replace those rusty pipes. Student leaders and motivators could mobilise the goodwill of the general populace. Companies and corporations could do it in return for special government incentives. The problem needs to be addressed and not just by the government. Cleanliness has an impact on ones psyche and the general sanitation problem in the country should be addressed if decency and integrity are constituents of the legacy Ghana hopes for.

Collectively as a nation we do have to contend with sporadic bites of the very bitter chunks of life, especially during the first few weeks right after Christmas, when the gone good times have made souvenirs of loaded pockets, leaving behind hefty bills to be contemplated before parents even dare to think of school fees. But the very last days of each August ooze with such hope and great joy. Fresh school uniforms neatly pressed, slowly tuck themselves into the trunks next to the goody-

loaded chop boxes. It will take a long journey and a few days before the first can of tinned fish bids a teary farewell to the shito bottle. So many expectant hearts impatiently await their very first day at the university. Mummy fretfully gets into her Christmas kaba for the goodbye photograph. Daddy conceals his pride in a thoughtful look; the stiff straight hairs of his gloomy nostrils passionately engaging the aroma of the farewell dinner seeping in from the kitchen. The air around the community is full of excitement and jittery nerves merry laughs and good cheer; no room for anguish and heartache not even over the disappointment of not being offered the course of preference in the university.

Another year will see secondary and tertiary institutions unpack loads of certified graduates unto the bustling job market. Being privileged to attend a third cycle institution was a dream come true for some, probably the last of those youthful dreams to ever come true. The hope had been to study physics at the tertiary level, but they could only be offered art. Every Ghanaian wants a first degree now. Too many students wanted to do physics but the available resources would only support a few. The lecturer in the annexed theatre called one boy and asked him what he thought he was up to making pencil drawings in an English lecture. It turned out the boy had wanted to study visual arts at the tertiary level but unfortunately in the SSCE he had had very good grades and his father wouldnt let him waste them. His twin sister had always wanted to be a doctor. No one competed with her for the Biology prizes on speech-and-prize-giving days. But she had always had a problem with technical drawing and was not the sharpest at arithmetic. The problems in physics sometimes gave her minute headaches no way she would make the six As KNUST required of those who aspired to study medicine. Doing away with the dream was the cause of a most unsettling frustration. Finances at home gave her limited options. In the end she had to contend with a first degree in business administration. She is in her final year now. And in spite of the odds, she is all smiles, confident and full of hope for the coming future, charged and ready to serve a country full of so much misguided talent. The business world might come to find in her an asset she has the

drive and the determination but she can never contribute as much to commerce as she would have to medicine. She might have discovered a potent vaccine for malaria like in the case of small pox but she is too busy dealing with bonds and taxes; Ghana will probably have to wait another generation.

It is about time decision makers addressing matters pertaining to education, attached some degree of significance to interests and talents. The worst seen by the prevailing situation is a couple of decades of feigned contentment that seems justified, as the most horrendous repercussions, we seem to have survived. Infinite development is what we seek and talent is a tool we have. So why should we not accelerate the rate of development and add a few more yards to each passing generations scope of vision? In the wake of stars like Essien and Stephen Appiah, there is no reason why talents in sports should be discouraged by parents and educators. There is an inestimable need for career guidance in all the cycles of education beginning with the Junior High School. The selection of courses for first year students in the second and third cycle institutions should also be based on a process that is highly influenced by substantial degrees of knowledge on the interests and natural capabilities of the individual.

The tendency to underrate concealed potential is itself an underrated character trait of incredibly immense deficit to our growing nation. We have failed to access much of the potential contributions of the majority of the citizenry which we deliberately refuse to recognise, much in the same way we have failed to find promise in all other ventures besides gold mining, timber exports and cocoa growing. Our growth has been impeded by spontaneous prejudices targeted at the citizen of less social standing. Whether it stems from a desire to impress the outside world or a desperate misunderstanding of the human need to improve ones being, the classroom in similar fashion, proves to be a cold hostile edifice for the less intelligent pupil; who becomes the rebellious enigma to whom its doors are almost always only half open. Often within those four walls hangs a

ruthless environment in which the child, whose performance is less than the average, becomes vulnerable to verbal assault, emotional abuse and shame fostered by the improper perception that the good teacher is the one who can teach only to the understanding of the outstanding pupil. Of the pupils in the average Primary Six classroom who will drop out of school and later fail to attain considerable achievements in life, the majority are usually not products of families that are financially unsound. They are just tactfully broken spirits who have over the years lost all hope of finding security in the classroom. All too often, the teachers reward for good performance is well over a little humour at the expense of the weak student who is often isolated and made to believe he is a detriment to a society he only vaguely understands. We fortify our own economic stagnation by making the educational institution a dark hole out of which the slow mind crawls to complete the transition from an investment into a hazardous parasite feeding on the hard-earned resources of the nation to which it has been shaped to make little or no contribution.

Owing to life as we know it and the origins of our culture, we as Africans are generally highly negligent of psychology, its nature and its development as an aspect of every individuals makeup. Though it is the basic faculty we consult in analysis of occurrences and decision making, psychology is given such low regard as though the only significant property it truly possesses is non-existence. But observations in advanced countries over the years prove it is beneficial to equip the educator with well-informed substantial knowledge on the patterns and makings of child psychology. Owing to the fact that it is the major determinant of individual perception and behaviour, it is of the utmost essence that concerning psychology and other matters pertaining to child and adolescent behaviour, local teachers be trained and educated, to promote harmony and a good learning environment in the classroom. It is also essential that the teacher acquires numerable methods of imparting knowledge to students as even the most intelligent students are adapted to certain procedures and methods that make them more effective.

Regarding the recent reforms to the structure of education in the country with the introduction of the New Education Reform Programme, there still is an urgent need to impart to teachers what the implications of the changes will be and how best the educator can adjust to them. A large majority of teachers still do not demonstrate thorough knowledge and comprehension of the main tenants of the reforms. Perhaps, what we need is fluent radio and television advertisements of the easily comprehensive kind that the introduction of the new Ghana cedi has proven to be so effective. Teachers are the main implementers of the programme and it is of fundamental essence to effective and productive education that they understand and adapt to the demands of the reform.

The tendency of many who undergo teacher training, to explore every available avenue but teaching, leaves our educational institutions in a perpetual state of being understaffed. Situations of this nature are mostly pronounced in the less developed and more rural areas of the country, where motivation for overworked teachers is also extinct owing to a lack of the necessary resources. At its worst, individual teachers find themselves catering for the needs of at least two or three distinct grades workload for which two or three teachers would be optimum under more favourable circumstances. Individual lecturers in the local government universities catering for over five hundred students, proves to be the norm. In certain cases, overworked tutors are plausibly rewarded but this is no adequate solution. With no reward to motivate the overworked teacher, the general quality of his output can leave much to be desired. Unfortunately, the overworked teacher who is well remunerated is no better an overburdened worker does not yield satisfactory output.

But every child needs an education of a fair quality the numbers of school-going children in the country should increase not cut down. So will it help to recruit more teachers? Definitely! But from where and how? Recruitment and training exercises call for hefty sums of money and the well-informed Ghanaian does not want to teach. Those already engaged in the field are scouting for

a way out and crusades for patriotism and the significance of education will not solve the problem; teachers are simply not paid enough.

Late in primary school, I was introduced to an interesting passage from a government-patronised English textbook Primary English: Pupils Book Four I think entitled My work is the most important of all. Aiming to propagate the perception that no work is of more importance than another, a play shown on a once-popular television programme called Toddlers Time, was based on this passage. Even as children, my colleagues and I had a tough time buying this idea. I remember the conclusion of the play and I remember one of the professionals from the play, a taxi driver, arguing that his services to the community were the most indispensable of all. Even at that tender age, we had seen enough; we wanted to be lawyers; we wanted to be doctors; we wanted to be aircraft pilots but not taxi drivers

The notion that all occupations are of equal significance may be very true if taken from the perspective of any nations collective government. But on to another truth; the common man who is also of this view must be affiliated with periodic pangs of bitterness stemming from the sight of his monthly pay check. To make this imagery less surreal, try asking a local medical doctor in privacy if he honestly believes his contribution to national development to be equal in worth to that of a grade school teacher. In view of this, what message are we sending to Ghanas teachers; and what are we contributing to the future of her education, when the reality of the situation is that the most engaging occupation of the present-day teacher, is training his biological children not to become teachers?

Increasing the teachers share of the sixty-four percent of the national cake, that the government utilises in paying salaries to workers, may seem impractical, but how about getting the parents of the children that the teacher teaches to contribute to an increase in the amount the teacher takes

home? How about founding an organisation that would handle the grand sum of the seventy Ghana pesewas or one Ghana cedi taken from the well-off working Ghanaians pocket, specifically for the betterment of the teachers economics.? I know. that is unheard of; though it almost definitely could make teaching a more attractive venture, make teachers more pleased with their work, might take the extra burden off the trunks of overworked teachers and almost definitely create for students, a spring of motivation in the newly found energy of the teachers; and that is where education as an asset has failed us as a nation.

The local system of education has failed to empower us as individuals and as a nation, to think for ourselves, rely on our conscience and instinct, initiate our own ventures and take control of our individual destinies. Having grown accustomed to apathy and indifference, we feign contentment with the system of things and blame others for our poor state of being when situations worsen. With our hearts being tickled by high expectations, we take in deep sighs and lay all our efforts to sleep, expecting good and bad governments alike to catapult us into prosperity by some form of magic. Education does not guarantee prosperity as the attitudes of many of us imply that we believe but it does enlighten the mind on the seemingly concealed opportunities available for its enhancement and growth. Education is supposed to charge us into action, but more often, it cripples us; makes us dormant; even in the determination of the vastness of our potentials.

This problem must have its roots in a history beginning in pre-colonial times, when instead of prime ministers and presidents, we had kings. The economy in those days must have been predominantly capitalist, with the populace paying taxes to the king who enjoyed prerogative rights and bore the responsibility of initiating social changes and entirely catering for all the social needs of the entire populace. This was not to change, until colonialism robbed us of the right to govern our very own lives. Independence nibbled on the influence of royalty and invoked in the people an allegiance to nationalism and socialism an economic structure whose threat to strongly grip our ambitious free

land proved idle with time. The course of events never witnessed our attitudes and minds adjusting to these changes. And what remains of socialism staggers in hopeless competition with a bustling and growing capitalism which demands an active and prudent spontaneity in the conceit and implementation of ideas; a highly competitive spirit founded on an unyielding belief that the mind is an inexhaustible mine of answers to all the staggering problems we may happen to encounter. But despite changes in our system of government, we have generally not abandoned the idea that the responsibility of our social welfare should entirely remain the headache of the government.

Over the decades subsequent to independence, the Ghanaian student has been a victim of a system conceived and nourished by desperation and strengthened with nonchalance; an education designed to emaciate the mind and kill the creative spirit; a system most antagonistic to development, that almost impeccably assures the absolute dependence of its subjects on a government whose only true duty is to maintain and secure a fertile sanctuary within whose inert atmosphere, its people should thrive and flourish. There is a need for campaign against the belief that the government is entirely responsible for the general well-being of its people a train of thought that has left its scars on Ghanaian individuality and made it almost impossible for individuals and corporations alike to initiate and complete any project in the absence of external aid. It is a popular view that has been greatly exploited by politicians and has eluded all the powers of an education that lies in close embrace with impracticality.

From a very early age we are made to adopt the perception that there is no future without a formal education a notion that is accepted only reluctantly by the majority of us when we are young. We satisfy parents and teachers alike with half-hearted compliance and we grow, realising intermittently that the creative side to which we naturally adhere is being deliberately ignored. With confusion and despair, we live our lives in fear of the implications of this notion. So we sit through six years of secondary cycle education, choking on lessons about archaic tools and machines which

we will not come across in a dozen lifetimes. We wear outfits made from imported cloth; modestly take seats in ordinary buildings built with foreign expertise and with undivided attention, show silent appreciation to vague lectures on jet propellers and nuclear reactors. The joy found in possessing the degree often mingles with frustration over some irrelevant things learnt.

Local techniques in agriculture and crop cultivation are considerably primitive. Every cycle in education so teaches; and every student also learns that. The mathematical and social sciences are not hesitant in recalling that Ghana has the worlds second highest rate of guinea worm infection, and the newspapers are never sparing with their support in blaming the government for the on-going energy crisis. But never in the echoes circulating the classroom does the student discover the reason why he has to be given lessons on persistent problems he very well knows about and feels better not knowing about. Absolutely concealed from him is his capability to change the negativity in his surroundings and his duty to do away with stagnation in every aspect of matters pertaining to the nation. The result is a most profound depression stemming from feelings of helplessness and existence in a society that undermines its youth and pays no attention to its views and ideas.

The disheartening outcome is a painful life lived in a society battered by problems most of which existed way before the concerned life. Leaving our senses strained between taut ropes, the problems keep biting. Every day spent with them drinks out of the pool of hope. Talking about them becomes a sign of weakness; being unencumbered by the situation, proves to be a sign of strength; and the severity of the repercussions eventually proves the local system of education to be nothing but a very reliable producer of expatriates. The fulfilment needs of the free spirit seeking drastic change, find few arguments to counter the view that the outside world can make better use of local labour. Inalienable cynicism adopted towards the development of the country naturally creates no room for patriotism in a country that gives more recognition to mediocre certificates than to skill.

From the beginning our priorities seemed well placed, our plans ingenious, defeat and failure, unthinkable. How did we come to this? How did the seemingly potent and versatile tool that was to be the bedrock of such a promising nation, fail to enable her realise even the most basic of everything she ever dreamt of? The present structure of Ghanas formal education, is the contribution of reform upon reform to a system initially meant to bear close resemblance to the British education system. That, in a nutshell, must be the most fundamental flaw in our local education system the foundation of the Ghanas formal education retains a disposition that makes it most effective against challenges the Ghanaian cannot necessarily identify with. One of the objectives stated in the mission statement of the Ghana Library Board National Youth Essay Competition reads: To help foster self-confidence in the youth with the working idea that home-grown challenges and problems can best be tackled with home-grown solutions. And no other idea pertaining to the challenges facing any nation could be truer. Without exception, the people of any given nation have an insight and understanding of their own day-to-day challenges that is unique to them and is capable of being attained by no other. No developing nation ambitious in its quest for prosperity leaves the identification of her problems and the development of her strategies and goals to the second-rate efforts of another. The close ties of education with the five decades of Ghanaian history are suggestive of the nations appreciation of education as a tool for national development. But it is about time we drew back on fulfilment of the desire to educate, resuscitated our composure, and went about taking time thinking it through to figure out exactly what it is we hope to benefit and gain out of education. Undoing the tangled ropes and picking up the pieces would then prove not to be so daunting. We would come about secrets concerning our relationship with the environment, endowing us with more room to feel our thoughts and instincts grow. We would come to an ever more vivid realisation of just how identical our needs are with those of the developed world, finding in the strength and boldness of the youth an eternitys fill of talents and qualities untapped. Perhaps then would we more than ever come to the repugnant realisation that an instituted system of education, not adapted to the dreams and needs of the people, will definitely ensure that we continue to survive only as subjects of the

west. From there, our only duty will be opening our determined minds and ensuring that with a developed work ethic and hatred for apathy, we keep broadening our vision. And when with the apt knowledge and prudence, we charge forward in recognition to the natural instinct to come out of ourselves, we would probably come out with a very different outlook on life and probably not be so afraid to redefine our purpose.

By David Kofi Asante-Darko Age: 21 years Institution: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Level: 300 (Third Year) Institution ID: 20036540 Programme of Study: BSc Statistics and Actuarial Science