| Revamping an Educational System 101 |
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December 19, 2008 12:58 PM
How do you improve the Ghanaian educational system? In times past, I would have had an easy answer for this. Train teachers better, get textbooks in the schools etc would have come off the top of my head, probably. But is it really that simple? After doing community service, traveling the country more than before and actually starting to think about the issues in more than superficial terms, I realize that it's definitely not. And in case you don't think the educational system is that bad, think again. It's almost impossible to get reliable data that actually means anything on how bad the situation is, but if an overwhelming majority of citizens are unable to make anything meaningful out of their lives with the education they are getting and rather equips them with a ludicrous dependence/obsession with government and its whims, I am positive there is something VERY VERY wrong. Even for the VERY few who are getting a semblance of a "good" education, is it really? Education that has no relevance to the society and does not in any way encourage citizens to think through and generate practical solutions for themselves and others is really a waste of resources to me. Do check out Paolo Friere's thoughts on this subject:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm
He was a 20th century Brazilian educator and theorist who had some interesting ideas about education. I agree with what he says to a large extent.
What are your thoughts?
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January 07, 2009 1:04 PM
I think this is a very interesting point that you have raised. Usually the focus is on how many teachers and facilities we have etc. But i have heard several complaints about the syllabus and curriculum also. I am certain that if you asked people how much of the Technical Drawing and Vocational Skills they applied to their current jobs, many people will admit that they did not use any of the knowledge acquired from these subjects. Not that these subjects are not important but perhaps, they could be made optional so that pupils could focus on the basics. Or they could be assigned less hours also. And other subjects could also be added. So definitely i agree with you on this point. The curriculum should be revised. Fortunately we have a president who is a Teacher now...fingers crossed.
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January 13, 2009 8:50 AM
Talking about revising the curricula brings to mind a point I heard on radio this morning about an NDC MP proposing that the 4 years of Senior High School should be reverted back to 3 years with the argument that there is no syllabus for the fourth year. Don't you think this is very dangerous for education in Ghana ? What do you think about the 3years 4 years issue?
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February 03, 2009 2:25 PM
I think that the 3/4 year issue is all about politics. It is very unfortunate that the effects will not be felt now but much, much later, when nothing can be done about it. I think that the teachers should be trained better and good educational resources should be used to help build the low educational standard of our nation. Changing the number of years students stay in school may just bring more chaos.
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February 03, 2009 2:26 PM
I think that the 3/4 year issue is all about politics. It is very unfortunate that the effects will not be felt now but much, much later, when nothing can be done about it. I think that the teachers should be trained better and good educational resources should be used to help build the low educational standard of our nation. Changing the number of years students stay in school may just bring more chaos.
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February 03, 2009 2:43 PM
I agree with Kwabi. The only logical explanation I seem to be hearing about why the number of years will be reduced again is that it'll reduce the costs associated with high school education. Even with this, I don't see the use of churning out half-baked high school grads and pocketing the money that could have been used in further refining their brains for a year. The focus, as Monika said, should be on improving the curriculum. Thus, the four years should be retained and the quality of education provided within that extra year improved. Reducing the years clearly provides no additional benefit or improvement. I really don't think politics should be played with our educational system at all.
edited by natettey 2/3/09 2:43 PM
edited by natettey 2/3/09 2:44 PM
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