I don’t want to talk about discipline and the ban on the use of the cane in our schools today. Let me rather,throw some light on the attitude of the students themselves. Most of them do not know why they are in school. They are lazy, carefree, careless and demotivated.
These are children of poor parents whose expectations have been heightened by ridiculous promises of free this, free that by politicians who always fail their people.
The textbooks are in short supply. We must go back to these result slip arrangement of the nineties which made sure that graduating students from the schools maintained close and cordial contact with their alma maters,until students returned all school books in their possession in exchange for a fully endorsed result slip.It was this result slip one had to use to search for his/her school of choice which had selected him and then initiate the admission process from that point.
Today, students report in their chosen senior secondary schools before their BECE results land in their former schools. Due to this,some teachers are not able to retrieve textbooks and other school stuff, if any, from the departing students. In no time,the books fall short and succeeding generations cannot benefit from them. Some textbooks have typos and other more serious errors. Can you imagine?
The Akufo Addo government is planning to discontinue the implementation of the capitation grant for schools and replace it with some sort of base payment to the schools.We pray that this new policy works better.The Capitation Grant under previous governments has failed.
Some education officials are also seriously to be blamed. Instead of fulfilling their mission and accomplishing their vision, they are greedily chasing money. Money, money,money all the way.
Dying together with academic excellence are the various co-curricular activities like sports, cultural festivals etc. How was the system ran in the eighties that we were able to have sports for a week?Not all students are breaks. Not all learners will become CEOs or end up in the formal sector. Some of the products of our schools will become sports persons,entertainers and the like. Can we link Ghana’s poor performance in sports lately to the apathetic approach to school sports by the authorities? Under the guise of saving instructional time and lack of funds, corrupt officials who care not a hoot for humanity and the nation have turned things upside down.With the current state of affairs,sports in Ghana is going nowhere. It was the schools that produced our sports people.Unfortunately, sports has been killed in our schools- especially, in the basic schools.
In the name of saving money and instructional time,sports in many areas of the Volta Region is organized within the circuits that constitute a district. The duration for these events is usually two to three days. Time allocated for football games in particular is woeful.The number of disciplines competed in has been drastically cut down. Officiating is bad. General organization is always bad. For God’s sake,where emanated this weight classification in school sports at the basic level? I am of the strong opinion that it should be scrapped.I quite remember that, one of the under 17 World cups, there was this huge Japanese forward called Fumakoshi who played very well. Lionel Messi is a relatively small man but bigger,brawnier defenders have not been able to stop him.Talent has got nothing to do with size or proportion of one’s body. I think the weight system is discriminatory. Body size or weight may be a small factor of advantage but cannot significantly affect results. So,are we saying,if I’m huge or heavy and is talented in some kind of sports,I should be barred from showcasing it?What?Weight classifications in combative sports makes sense. However, it is unfathomable that even volleyball players are weighed out.Meanwhile, it is a no contact sport.
What happened to our zonal, district, regional and national sports meets? They also got infected somewhere along the line.The infections have eventually killed them. Our schools struggle to buy balls and kits.Physical Education as a subject is not being taught in our basic schools. Many girls still have serious misconceptions about sports because of the above problem.
The question is; are our students doing better academically because time for sports and other extra curricular activities have been reduced? Or that is it rather affecting them negatively? A sound mind lives in a healthy body.I see that our students have become dull and dormant because of the little time given to extra curricular activities.
Why do we as Ghanaians enjoy pretense so much? We pretend about almost everything, including our education. If we are not ready to upgrade in anything, why not be honest to ourselves and just make do with where we are? ICT teaching and learning and using ICT tools in teaching has failed miserably.When laptops were sent to the Volta region under the Mahama Government/rlg laptops deal to be distributed to deserving people,the gadgets were left stockpiled in the Regional Education Office for a long time for whatever reason.The training of ICT teachers has not been consistent and concerted enough.
By: King Zeto
This is a good exposition on the bizzare turn of events in our educational setup as a nation. The future of our nation is being wrecked softly in silence. The earlier we collectively see these challenges as a national disaster waiting to occur, the better.
Let us rise up and do the do.
We’re are all involve in building our motherland.