Making Education Relevant to Ghana’s Development Needs: Time for Paradigm Shift

After almost six decades of Independence, Ghana seems largely unable to achieve its development goals. All institutions of the social structure (which should be contributing positively towards the realization of our collective vision of development) are defective: a polarized political space dominated by self-serving practitioners; increased religiosity and manipulation by conceited pastors and apostles (some of who are busy changing into reptiles and causing havoc); a frail economy; weakening family systems; a shallow education system that produces non-innovative graduates; as well as a non-responsive health delivery system are the remains of a country whose prospects and dreams were as bright as that of Malaysia and Singapore at the time of independence.

Governments over the years have experimented with various development plans and strategies to accelerate Ghana’s development pace; they have introduced development policy frameworks such as the First Step (1996-2000) of the Ghana Vision 2020 and the Poverty Reduction Strategies (2003-2009) among others to achieve and consolidate gains made in areas such as political, economic and social development and also ensure reduction of poverty. But all these have yielded only little in so far as development is concerned.

Development is broadly interpreted to mean a general improvement in the well-being of the average person and thus requires significant investments especially in the education sector.

An efficient education system not only produces intellectuals but individuals with a sense of responsibility for the overall development of their communities and the total advancement of the human race. But is that really the case in Ghana? Are Ghanaian schools and educational institutions actually producing people capable of leading the development of their communities and humanity in general?

Education generally involves teaching, training and learning to improve knowledge and to develop skills. Though learning happens just about anywhere, education is mainly received in schools where structured instructions and assessment are used to direct learners towards pre-defined goals/outcomes.

Education for development embraces not only school, college and university education but all the other formative influences which bear upon people within a society. Ironically, for most people in this part of the world, education means: “sit through school, and get a certificate to qualify for a job.” The National Inspectorate Board (an agency of the Ministry of Education, mandated to provide independent, external evaluation of the quality and standards in basic and second cycle educational institutions in Ghana) however disagrees. This disagreement is captured in its carefully crafted motto: “Learning, Not Just Schooling”.

It must be stated that, the fierce competition that characterize human interactions and engagement in the post-modern era is unprecedented and people with high levels of knowledge and technical skills are in high demand today, than in any time in history. Uneducated or less educated persons therefore stand little chance of achieving anything without extra skills. To remain relevant and competitively attractive, one needs more than just a certificate that shows that one has gone through school; one must demonstrate a change in attitude (which is the object of education) and the capacity for continuous and life-long learning.

A solid education rests on literacy, which is the ability to read and write. But, literacy has advanced over the years, beyond merely being able to read and write, to being able to use information to improve one’s living conditions and standards. Against this background, the need to raise current standards and levels of education in Ghana cannot be over-emphasized.

Attempts to improve child literacy and for that matter, quality primary education dates as far back as the 1920s when Governor Guggisburg initiated major developmental programs including educational reforms in his attempts at constructing a modern Gold Coast. Governor Guggisburg must have realized, way back, that quality education was the only way to develop any country so he aggressively sought funding for education in the Gold Coast.

In recent times, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have entered partnerships to improve early grade primary education. An important feature of this partnership is the National Education Assessment (NEA), a curriculum based assessment in English and Mathematics administered to P3 and P6 pupils every other school year in July. The National Education Assessment provides an overall report card for the country in Mathematics and English, thus giving the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) reliable and useful information for evaluating the quality of primary school education in the country. The NEA is an indicator of the overall national status of achievement in the primary school system.

The 2013 Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA); Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) and the National Education Assessment (NEA) Report revealed that “only four per cent of pupils were able to read with some understanding, with only two per cent of them able to read fluently with understanding.” It is over a year now since the 2013 report of the NEA was launched and stakeholders have been tasked put their hands to the wheel towards achieving improved results of school children in subsequent years. Improving students’ ability to acquire basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing requires all stakeholders’ hands on deck. (One waits with batted breath for the next report to see the gains made).

Progressing from the basic school to the second cycle requires students to demonstrate appreciable advancement of basic cognitive, affective and motor skills which is manifested in their ability to communicate through writing (of simple letters, articles, advertisements and short stories for recreation); engaging in meaningful debates on issues, doing simple arithmetic; demonstrating affection towards their colleagues; as well as performing coordinated motor activities. However, majority of students (at various levels of education) fail to measure up to these standards. There is thus an urgent need for steps to improve education delivery.

Shifting Paradigm!

The factors contributing to the current state of Ghana’s education are common knowledge. A lot has also been said about what needs to be done to improve education delivery in the country. What matters now, in finding answers for Ghana’s education sector dilemma is to move away from the canker of finger-pointing. Making education relevant requires an all-hands-on-deck approach with community ownership being at the centre of all efforts.

Education Management

Monitoring and supervision are essential components of efficient education management. The structure of the GES provides that the management and administrative control of pre-tertiary education is vested in Directors at the various levels who are accountable to the GES Council. Directors of education at the Municipal/District levels have the major task of promoting teaching and learning in schools within their jurisdiction through planning, organizing (of human and material resources), directing and controlling. Management supervises and monitors the deployment and use of resources, ensuring that the right things are done to bring about desired results. Unfortunately, management of schools are hindered by logistical constraints as well as ineptitude of some line managers (including head teachers and schedule officers).

Thankfully, the re-admission of the Education Sector into the Decentralization Schedule of the Local Government Ministry provides some hope. When the devolution type of the education decentralisation takes full effect, it will engender and encourage conscious community and grassroots support and participation in the ownership and management of education, with district assemblies being the fulcrum of all actions, not Accra. This should lead to sufficient allocation of funds for recruitment and training of education management staff for deeper understanding of the principles and functions of management and consequently, improvement of teachers’ attitudes to work.

Beyond the structural issues, education authorities need to employ efficient models of supervision in schools. One useful concept is Clinical Supervision which is a method of supervision in which the supervisor is involved with the teacher in a close, “helping relationship.” Essentially, clinical supervision in education involves a teacher receiving information from a colleague who has observed the teacher’s performance and who serves as both a mirror and a sounding board to enable the teacher critically examine and possibly alter his or her own professional practice. Clinical supervision is based on the proposition that the relationship between supervisor and teacher is mutual, and that the two work together as colleagues rather than in a supervisor-subordinate relationship.

A significant merit of this model is that it reduces much of the anxiety usually associated with classroom observation or inspections by the supervisor. When teacher and supervisor relate to each other as colleagues instead of supervisor and subordinate, a mutual respect develops leading to desirable outcomes.

Discipline and Reinforcement

The importance of discipline to education and school work cannot be over-stated. However, many teachers erroneously think discipline is synonymous with punishment. They therefore come up explanations and submissions to support their view that discipline must elicit pain. But a more humane form of control would enable pupils to learn without fear. This is known as Positive Discipline (PD). Positive Discipline focuses on positive points of behaviour and is based on the idea that there are no bad children, just good and bad behaviours.

Good behaviours can be taught and reinforced while weaning the bad behaviours without hurting the child verbally or physically. PD is aimed at enhancing long-term solutions that develops learners’ own self-discipline.

People who engage in Positive Discipline are not ignoring problems, rather, they are actively involved in helping the child learn how to handle situations more appropriately while remaining calm, friendly and respectful to the children themselves. Positive discipline includes a number of different techniques, used in combination, to achieve a more effective way for parents to manage their kids’ behaviour, or for teachers to manage groups of students. Many parents and schools follow a structured, open-ended model known as Positive Behavior Support (PBS) to promote positive decision making and behaviours.

Positive discipline contrasts with negative discipline which may involve angry, destructive, or violent responses to inappropriate behavior. Positive discipline uses the full range of reinforcement and punishment options:

• Positive reinforcement such as complimenting a good effort;
• Negative reinforcement, such as ignoring requests made in a whining tone of voice;
• Positive punishment, such as requiring a child to clean up a mess he made; and
• Negative punishment, such as removing a privilege in response to poor behaviour

Among several benefits, PD creates and maintains a positive and effective learning environment where all children are respected and are successful learners.

Transformational Teachers

Improving students’ interest in school work and their general attitude towards learning requires a radical departure from the old ways of doing things. The encouragement of rote learning and use of corporal punishment to reinforce learning must give way to efforts by teachers to make learners develop a desire for life-long learning through efficient models that project learning to them as an attractive activity and not as a painful one.

While recognizing the fact that high proficiency and competence levels of teachers inure educational outcomes, it is important to emphasize that chasing certificates and qualifications at the expense of learners does the direct opposite. Today, a good number of teachers have signed on to Distance Learning and Sandwich Programmes at the various Universities in the country, using a greater part of the time they should spend teaching pupils and students studying or revising their personal notes. The recent GES directive for all newly graduated teachers to teach for a stipulated number of years before pursuing distance or sandwich programmes is a very bold step taken towards instilling discipline among teachers with regards to their time on task.

Media Highlight

While seeking to draw a large following to their various brands as press houses in order to command a large market share for their stories, the media needs to be mindful of its role as gatekeepers in society. They need to ask questions that lead to positive responses and outcomes. This introduces the concept of Appreciative Inquiry (AI).

Appreciative Inquiry encourages groups to inquire about, learn from, and build on what is working when they are at their best, rather than focusing on what’s gone wrong and fixing problems. By using AI to understand their capabilities and resources, organizations bring about and sustain positive change. When the media asks questions that elicit positive answers, they will be helping to chart a new course for society in which only the things that work are named and dignified.

Purposive Parents

Increasing Parents support for pupils and students is another key factor in improving educational outcomes. Parents need to complement efforts being made by the state to provide resources and materials for the efficient execution of academic work. It has been found that students whose parents provide supplementary books and other materials for them generally do better than those whose parents do not. The time when it was fashionable to spend money buying electronic gadgets such as DVDs and MP3 players to decorate one’s living room is past. These items now only attract thieves and armed robbers into one’s home. Investing funds for such items in children’s education is a much more worthy cause. Thomas Jefferson puts it succinctly thus: “when a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him.”

Parents must also encourage and supervise their wards to study at home to complement what teachers do at school. They must encourage their wards to do their Homework even if they (the parents) are themselves illiterate.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A great deal of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is required to reverse the dwindling trends in education across the country. Voluntary corporate initiatives concerned with community development, the environment and human rights benefit society while simultaneously improving a corporation’s public image and profitability.

Corporate organizations can help bridge the deficit in reading materials for schools. In spite of efforts being made by state to supply books to schools, the demand for books still remains very high as more children get enrolled in school and more of these books also get destroyed. Corporate organizations can also construct libraries for schools to help keep their stocks of books.

Some organizations and groups have already shown the way. The Unity Rural Bank (in the Volta Region) has a scholarship scheme for Brilliant but needy pupils. The Ghana Association of Writers (GAW), though a not-for-profit association established what it calls: Ghana Association of Writers Schools Outreach Programme (GAWSOP) in 2012. Under the project schools are supposed to form and sustain literacy clubs to keep students’ interest in reading and writing.

Similarly, under Joy FM’s Read 100 Project (launched in 2013) fifteen libraries are to be constructed over a three-year period across the country at central locations to give children access to educational resources during and after school hours. The premises of the libraries will also be used to provide basic training on drug abuse, sex, etc. for children in partnership with the Ghana Library Board, Ghana Education Service and other sponsors. Ho Kpodzi in the Ho Municipality is one of the lucky beneficiaries of the project.

Somewhere in 2014, Zoom Lion Ghana Ltd announced it was “exploring the possibility of adopting the Junior Graphic, so that children will be encouraged to read and also write articles on sanitation to the paper for publication.” Though much has not been heard of this project after its announcement, it is a laudable initiative which when executed well would help to promote and improve reading and writing among students as well as boosting sanitation in the country. Other corporate organizations are encouraged to set aside part of their annual budgets to promote effective education delivery across the country.

It is time to look away from negative things and to begin rewarding the things that work! All hands must be on deck.