our children or guinea pigs?

By Kofi Akordor
On the front page of the Tuesday, October 11, 2007 edition of one the nation’s newspapers was this rather distressing news that 50 percent of the pupils who sat this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) could not make the pass grades. The story said that out of the 320,255 candidates in the April 2007 examinations, 160,000 could not qualify to enter any senior secondary school, now renamed senior high school.
To those who have followed the educational system very closely, this is not strange. You do not expect miracles, when you see our children squatting on the floor or trying to squeeze themselves into the few desks available while straining to catch lessons from an overstretched and tired teacher.
Many in Accra and a few urban centres may not know, but a brief trip into the regions in the rural areas will give a true picture of what is happening in the country and how our children are fighting against all odds to compete with the elite and more privileged schools for vacancies in the senior secondary and universities.
Poor infrastructure is still a major problem confronting the educational system. A lot of our schools still comfortable abode under trees and sheds. Apart from physical structures, learning materials are not easily available in most of the schools. It is also an established fact that most of the schools, especially those in the rural areas do not have their requisite number of teachers, thus putting severe strains on the few who accept postings to those areas.
Under the circumstances, one should not expect anything extraordinary from these pupils who, through no fault of theirs found themselves in such depraved situation. What it means is that if the parents and guardians of these 160,000 unfortunate children do not take steps to send them for apprenticeship training they will join a bigger pool of similar unfortunate children to constitute fertile breeding ground for future armed robbers, burglars, prostitutes and ‘419’ experts.
It means 50 percent of the population of tomorrow’s Ghana has been declared redundant even before they learnt to do some work. This cannot fit into the development agenda of any country that wants to be taken seriously.
Before the introduction of new educational reforms in 1987 by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), there was a system which created room for several terminal points as the pupils climb the academic ladder. For instance, pupils were pushed into a narrow gorge and made to fight for survival. Those who could pass the Common Entrance Examination in the then Primary Class Six or Standard Three enter the secondary schools and leave a reduced number to enter Middle School Form One.
The process continued until the last batch either as a result of poor performance or lack of financial resources reached Middle School Form Four (Standard Seven), where the pupils were given the last chance to either enter a secondary school, training college, technical institute or a vocational training institute.
By this time, the original number on roll might have dwindled considerably to reduce any pressure on the various second cycle schools. That system left very little drop-outs in strict terms apart from those who if even you split their heads and stuff them with examination answers they may not be able to pass.
The argument for the 1987 reforms was that the previous system did not cater for the practical needs of the pupils. There was this further argument that the pupils will be given practical training in certain employable skills so that by the time they graduate at the junior secondary school level, those who could not pursue academic courses could conveniently find place on the job market.
The system therefore, envisaged the provision of well-equipped workshops to train pupils in skills such as masonry, carpentry, painting, plumbing, batik, tie and dye and many others. The programme, however, started on a faulty note and all appeals for a second appraisal were submerged under torrents of political arguments. In the end, the programme started without the workshops. Where there were workshops, there were no equipment or tools. Above all, there were no teachers for the vocational skills. It was basically an old system with a new name.
Twenty years after, a new educational system has been put in place. In defence of the new system, the age-old arguments surfaced again. That the old system was not fashioned to cater for the practical or employable skills of the youth. That the new system will depart from mere writing, reading and rhetoric as pertained in the previous one. We have also been told that the new system will put emphasis on the teaching of science and technology to hasten our middle-income status.
These are laudable reasons which have heard several times in the past. Even before the syllabi for the new system could be ready, we have done what we have perfected over the years – changing names. So schools re-opened and our children went to sit in the same dilapidated classrooms, sat on the same rickety chairs, staring at the same disgruntled and poorly-paid teacher. Only this time, they are no longer in the junior secondary or senior secondary school but in Junior High and Senior High. Call it giving a dog a new name.
Apart from a new name, nothing much has changed. The text books for the new system are not ready. The teachers who are the key players in the scheme of things are themselves in a quandary. We have been told the authorities of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service have started a series of orientation courses for the teachers on the new educational reforms. It means the teachers must finish with their courses before attempting to approach our children with any new ideas.
As happened in the past, any attempt to make an objective analysis of the situation and offer any suggestion is seen as diversionary to distract the government from its path of giving our children quality education.
No educational system, no matter how well-intentioned and fashioned will function properly if the essential ingredients of the system are not adequately catered for. Basic infrastructure such as classrooms and furniture are still woefully inadequate. The question of classrooms without teachers has not received the due attention. The demands of teachers are also hanging on our necks as well as lack of text books and teaching aids.
If instead of confronting these traditional problems pragmatically and addressing them once and for all we think the solution lies in the changing of names, then our children for many years to will remain guinea pigs for experiments which have nothing positive to do with their future. For what benefit does a child derive, if because of capitation grant and free feeding, he decides to go to school yet there is no classroom and when he enters a classroom, there is no teacher?
In my humble opinion, the best way to progress is to make improvement in existing systems having studied their strengths and weaknesses and not making frequent changes. But changes, if they become absolutely necessary, must not be cosmetic but total in name and structure. We hope the new system will not only be a matter of junior high and senior high but a reform which will be bring fundamental changes in our educational structure and bring the best out of our children. But that means all facilities must be made available.