Developing Capacity of University Teachers: A Holistic Approach

The decision of the Ministry of Education to compel non-PhD university lecturers in the country to pursue PhD in their respective academic areas is a move to follow best practices in education. University is the highest level of learning; logically, teachers should aspire to the height of knowledge in order to be able to impart to learners accurate, sophisticated knowledge, through the best possible classroom approaches. In universities elsewhere, PhD holders are likely to receive tenure position in a faculty; non-PhD holders might be employed on contract basis. Therefore, the leeway given non-PhD holders to upgrade is as humane a gesture as it is pragmatic. If the contracts of all non-PhD holders were terminated immediately, the institutions would wobble, and national investment would be wasted.

Despite its appeal, the Ministry should not focus solely on PhD certificates; rather, it must target a learner-centred system. Hence, the Ministry should not roll out one blanket under which all institutions would pursue capacity building.  Traditional universities should pursue a certain line of intellectual development, while technical universities embark on a practical-oriented human resource development. The article now focuses on the latter.

The contemporary world operates the Knowledge Economy, so we must focus on acquired knowledge and applying such effectively for learner empowerment. Education enables communities to train young generations for intellectual, socio-cultural, economic, geo-political advancement, to mention these. The unemployment and sanitation crisis in the country, apathy towards the environment, unethical behaviour which plunges the nation into debt, nauseous religious practices, lust for money, and aversion for study/work – to mention these – among the youth are major indicators that the training system has failed.

Currently, education in Ghana, largely, embodies commercialization of information and ostentation. From kindergarten to the university, a cross-section of teachers and instructors, even institutions devise innovative ways to siphon money from learners, rather than pursue and share knowledge. Subsequently, the explosion of capacity building in recent decades has not necessarily yielded expected advancement in applied research, effective training, solid skill acquisition, and poverty reduction – especially, among the youth.

Possessing a PhD certificate does not offer any guarantee that the holder can impart knowledge effectively, in theory and practice. Many Ghanaians study abroad, in excellent academic environment. Upon completion, they bring the certificates home and leave best practices abroad. Such elements might not guide learners to accurate knowledge and career paths. The certificate is useful in the technical classroom only if it advances balanced intellectual pursuit, skill acquisition.

Currently, some PhD holders have deficit knowledge in practical instruction, which constitutes a crucial chunk of competency-based training. In fairness, they may not solely to be blamed, because the system might not have equipped them for hands-on training. Thus, even a PhD holder needs technology education to be effective in hands-on training. In fact, technical education is faltering, because many of the teachers are not equipped for the technical classroom.

To deviate from that destructive trend, therefore, the approach to capacity building should be holistic so as not replicate the skewed human resource development pattern of recent decades. For starters, all non-professional teachers should go through the diploma in education programme, which would include educational technology, which prepares teachers for practical instruction. Those in IT, engineering, applied arts and sciences should be able to utilise job sheet, tax and skill analyses for effective hands-on training. Teachers in communication, entrepreneurship and the businesses should explore authentic teaching/tasks, case studies and role plays to situate teaching/learning in simulated practical environment. Then evaluation for promotion would be based on teachers’ competency in both theory and practice. Let us pursue best practices.

One adverse effect of the skewed human resource development has been the neglect of the instructorship and technician groups. Ideally, lecturers should handle theory, instructors would handle practical instruction, and technicians handle workshops and laboratories. However, career progression of instructors and technicians has not received the necessary attention. Currently, instructors can progress up to chief instructor and receive the equivalent of a senior lecturer’s salary. Technicians’ advancement ends at chief technician, who receive the equivalent of a lecturer’s salary. Logically, they upgrade, move to industry for better remuneration or apply for a lecturer's position for vertical review. Consequently, both groups are gradually becoming endangered in the technical university system, which endangerment also implies a rapid extinction of pure hands-on training, the distinguishing feature of the Technical/Vocational system.

A spill-over effect is that those at post may not have acquired current technological skills; additionally, they may be operating in poorly-equipped laboratories and workstations. Since these support training, they may actually be imparting training based on old practices or concepts. Even new technology programmes might be still seeped in old methods and practices, which work environment would demotivate personnel. And products might not be adept technologically and might underperform in industry. NABCO is proof. Therefore, effective restructuring of the instructorship, technician career paths should constitute a crucial part of the proposed capacity building of teachers in technical universities.

In reality, a technical/vocational system skewed towards practice can survive, but when training is skewed towards theory, the prospect of solid skill acquisition becomes elusive. About two decades ago, HND graduates handled HND courses. It was possible because those graduates possessed solid practical skills, which they were able to impart to trainees. In the 21^st Century, the nation needs teaching personnel who balance competent instruction in both theory and practice.

The Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary education has lamented the absence of research institutions in the country due to low PhD holders. The proposed capacity building should culminate in the rebirth of technical universities as highly-powered research institutions. Teachers and the taught would be research-oriented, capable operators of the Knowledge Economy.

Technical education should be the ace up the sleeve of Government for changing the tide of the nation. The system should uphold sophisticated skill acquisition programmes that can help to overcome unemployment and cyclical poverty, gender inequality, dependence on aid, to name four. So while targeting PhD for capacity, develop instructors and technicians to enhance practical training. Only a concurrent upgrading of the three groups, targeted investment in technology and training would ensure a sustainable, productive higher technical education.

Technical University in Ghana: An albatross

Technical university (TU) in Ghana has become an albatross for the Ghanaian educational stakeholder. An empowering educational concept, exploited elsewhere for highly-skilled human resources, innovative research and ground-breaking advancement in human endeavours, has become a farce in Ghana due to its false start and porous implementation. Consequently, in name there are TUs, but in principle, content and genuine practices, there is no TU in Ghana, so the benefits of competency and solid skill acquisition evade the nation. Yet, instead of replicating excellent training practices elsewhere, we politicise education, pray incessantly, then scramble for arms from communities which brace austerity to target quality training systems.

TU was expected to be characterised by excellent practices in academic work and the research enterprise. Excellence, supposed to catapult Technical/Vocational Education to a 21^st Century training system. Mr. John Mahama, former president and originator of the technical university concept in Ghana, stated that the conversion was not to be “a label change only”. In his speech to the stakeholders’ consultative forum held in 2015, he stressed principles that would underpin the concept:

The TUs were expected to be peopled by highly-skilled teaching staff and qualified secondary school graduates, both of whom would become engrossed in applied research for quality outcomes across disciplines and vocations. The focus was competency-based training, so small class numbers were targeted – a teacher:student ratio of 1:15 , or at most, 1:25 – per current practice. To buttress the competency aspect, the Technical University Act also enjoins TUs to base instruction in “multiplicity of scientific theories and methodologies …, explore practice-oriented teaching approaches” to equip learners for industry.

Industrial experience was expected to be key. The reference point was Germany, where a minimum of three years’ industrial experience is a requirement for TU instructors. Technology was also expected to be a key support to teaching/learning. Additionally, to support teaching and hands-on training, classrooms, laboratories and practical stations were going to be furnished with sophisticated tools and equipment. Among others, the TU concept is learner-centred, targeting industry-driven curricula, skilled graduates, poverty alleviation among the youth– a reverse of the current situation – many trainees graduate with poor/mismatched, sometimes unemployable skills.

However, the instruction room transformation hardly occurred in the selected polytechnics for the conversion in 2016. Two years later, teacher:student ratio remains unacceptably high. One teacher can handle any number from fifty to hundred, sometimes more. If one gets thirty or forty students, one is so relieved. Only a few programmes satisfy the acceptable teacher:student ratio, and it is not by design but rather due to poor patronage by students. So genuinely, competency-based training has not materialised. Even though technology could somewhat support such big numbers through authentic learning and simulation activities, TU classrooms are not exactly technology-friendly spaces, at least, not by 21^st Century standards; neither is majority of instructors technology-savvy, so teaching/learning is still largely limited to the physical classroom. Some programmes operate dated curricula. Often, students are not exposed to quality intellectual research material

Amidst a TU but no TU reality, the Government is expected to migrate staff of the TUs to the payroll of the universities. The recent strike action by the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) was its response to Government’s failure to migrate staff. Better remuneration is desirable, but so is a learner-centred training environment. Therefore, it would it be ethical, strategic, and frugal to simultaneously tackle migration and resourcing TUs to competency levels.

A Holistic Approach

Sadly, the premise for the migration is a continuation of the push and pull trajectory: TUTAG is fixated on joining the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), which is equally preoccupied with keeping TUTAG out. Consequently, instead of targeting hands-on education, both stakeholders have skewed the parameters. While government also struggles for economic foothold, the growing generations are denied intellectual empowerment and 21^st Century industrial skills. I have been labelled a sympathiser of government – not employer – by a cross-section of TUTAG leadership for advocating quality education instead of combat. Interesting times indeed when educators sideline quality.

The recent audit organized by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) is harrow for evaluating instructors of a Technical/Vocational system. Government must not migrate salaries only; it should migrate the entire TU system for a genuine Technical/Vocational Education. NCTE should strategize a holistic auditing tool for practice vis-à-vis the operating document, Acts 922, 974, which prescribe the TU content and regulation. Mr. Mahama should be part of the assessment, so that he can tell the nation clearly what his government packaged for the conversion in 2016.

A holistic approach would include the TU research culture in the audit, to determine its applied relevance to community, and national development agenda. Closely tied to that would be an inquiry of current educational theories and scientific methodologies being explored in the TU classroom, impact of Information Technology. Equally crucial would be an appraisal of TU links with industry, instructors’ currency in their areas of expertise and teaching methods. After two years of operation, TU curriculum should be audited for currency regarding technology-based programmes for learner, community and national, as well as conformity to international standards. In other words, it is crucial to evaluate the entire TU system to ascertain whether it has begun to elevate Technical/Vocational Education, whether it is meeting 21^st Century educational goals, whether it is targeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, effectively addressing skill acquisition needs of the country, making trainees adaptable.

In summary, NCTE must refrain from using traditional university parameters alone to assess TUs, per the current audit. Rather, it should broaden the base to cover industrial standards: Indicators should be effective instruction approaches such as experiential learning, 70:30/60:40 hands-on training/theoretical instruction, and progression for technicians who anchor hands-on training. These would be good pointers to competency-based training, evidence of progress, aspiration for quality, to mention these.

Instead of charting its own professional course, POTAG followed in UTAG’s shadow over the past four decades; the status quo has remained. TUTAG is competing with UTAG over position and ranking, instead of charting a distinct progression path for TU staff, using international Technical/Vocational regulations. It is time for a concerted effort to turn this albatross into the empowering training concept that it is. A holistic academic audit would be key.

The Ugly Implications of Industrial Actions: Changing National Mindset

There is an ugly cliché in this country that when negotiating workers’ service conditions, the only language governments understand is strike; to legitimize that theory, workers’ unions often wield strike as a weapon during negotiations. The reality, though, is that unions tend to be strike-happy. Industrial actions constantly have victims. Eleven years ago, I surveyed a cross-section of polytechnic graduates – mostly 1980-2009 – in order to ascertain their impression of the polytechnic system. Among the variables was what hindered participants’ studies. To that question, all participants responded, “teacher strikes”.   

Anybody who was even slightly associated with the polytechnic system in those decades would fully appreciate the sentiments of the graduates. It became so bad that a cross-section of Ghanaians labelled the Polytechnic Teachers’ Association of Ghana (POTAG) “strikers”; the Association actually lost government favour. Therefore, at its Emergency National Congress in Cape Coast in 2006, there was a consensus to reverse the reputation of POTAG. The Association resolved to use dialogue, rather than strike, to negotiate conditions of service and other professional matters. Apparently, we have failed in that resolution, because in transitioning from POTAG to Technical Universities Association of Ghana (TUTAG), the status quo has remained. Indeed, old habits die hard.

The timing of the current strike raises grave ethical questions about TUTAG’s position as academicians and major educational stakeholders. A week after teaching began, the strike was announced. Many parents had gone through extreme pains in order to raise funds for admission forms, tuition and accommodation, to name these. A cross-section of self-sponsoring learners shared the same stress in order to meet funding obligations, only to be slapped with a sit-down strike after a week of lectures. A learner who belongs to the second category lamented to a key media personality. The latter informed the learner that POTAG/TUTAG relishes and thrives on strikes. The timing makes it rather unethical to defend TUTAG.

A second ethical questions pertains to distracting stakeholders from the business of implementing the double-track secondary education policy. The new concept might change the face of secondary education. Successfully implemented, the tertiary system would be a major beneficiary. In four years, some products of the double-track system would enter technical university classrooms. Logically, one would expect TUTAG to give full attention to the implementation of the new policy, lend constructive input in order to ensure a successful implementation of the policy, as well as add some needed quality to teaching/learning. Well-equipped secondary graduates are an asset to the tertiary classroom. In fact, TUTAG has an obligation. However, not only has it failed to monitor and contribute to the implementation of the double-track initiative, but it is also distracting attention from the implementation processes. Other serious ethical questions arise:

Should Government halt ongoing efforts in the double-track implementation in order to attend to TUTAG migration issues? Could the feet-dragging issue not have been effectively addressed in a non-combatant manner? Could a few more months of tolerance not have been a better option than this sit-down strike? Who really is at the receiving end of this harsh pay-out, Government or the ordinary Ghanaian tax-payer, some of whom also double as parents and learners?

Analysed through such questions, the strike assumes layers of oppressive implications for the Ghanaian tax-payer such that it fails to raise sympathy for TUTAG. Rather, it projects us as academicians who place less stock on genuine intellectual development. Since others have rejected the strike, who becomes collateral damage? Can the striking groups claim to have honoured all the required conditions for the migration? The answer could determine whether the action is hasty or compelling.

Making connections, another ethical question has to do with the path being created for the growing generations in our homes, classrooms and communities. If the message constantly being sent to them is that dialogue should be despised in favour of combat during worker-government negotiations, what leadership qualities would we be nurturing in them? And if they became leaders without adept negotiation skills, how would they protect/advance domestic, community, sectional, institutional, (inter)national interests? How would national key players pursue established – or initiate – bi-lateral, multi-lateral relationships?

Above all, individual, community, (inter)national issues are always interconnected in this world; an agency neglects such connections to its own doom. It is time Ghanaians began to weigh the future implications of present activities. Apparently, some generations failed to do so in the past decades. Consequently, a cross-section of contemporary generations are so bankrupt in community and national sense, unable to connect present to the future. Yet, living for the present alone negates our very humanity.

Thus, TUTAG has major obligations to the contemporary and future generations in reversing a national habit of dodging dialogue for adversarial approaches when it comes to negotiations. Since university classrooms are spaces for critical, analytical and reflective thinking processes, they ought to champion the course in changing national thinking order. Per their close links with industry and hands-on-training nature, technical universities should be icons of synergy and dialogue, through curricula and extra-curricular activities. It cannot afford to represent any other sentiment.

Government will always be government and employer, so it seeks to save as much money as it can, even as workers’ union seek to pry as much money as it can from the government. That push and pull trajectory has never converged through combat. Negotiating parties have always resorted to dialogue in order to resolve sharp divisive issues. Yes, parties will attempt to stall processes, for genuine and selfish reasons. There will be fulfilled and broken promises. Some expectations will be met, whilst others will be dashed, all inevitable outcomes of union negotiations. I am not an expert in trade issues; my pragmatic sense tells me one thing only: Dialogue is, and will always be, the best option. Over to you TUTAG!

Real Tragedy

Today, I am ashamed to be a Ghanaian

Today, I loathe this country called Ghana

Today, I am disgusted with Ghanaian administration

Which specialises in inefficiency, ineptitude

Today, I am sick to death of a Ghana that

cheapens life,

nurtures calamity

rewards negligence

applauds ostentation

smoulders innocence

wails tragedy.

Disgustingly avoidable

Today is Teen Werekoa’s tragedy!

Today, Adagya coughed up

Werekoah’s parents and sibling.

The caved bridge ignored for

FOUR MONTHS

hurled the rain waters up.

And vanquished six.

Three, WEREKOA and Sister’s:

Father, Mother, Brother!

Fifties, forties, seven!

The real tragedy, I read,

when prime parents

with dependable children

Die in situations

Principally avoidable!

Werekoa got caught

In nauseous Ghanaian cycle.

Avoidable tragedy!

What did the street waters do?

Whose business was

under the bridge,

broken and sunk?

The street housing the waters?

Is it moral

to neglect a sunk bridge

which hosts human traffic?

Today

Werekoa will be shelled

With the news that no child

Should ever receive.

And be catapulted

Into

Parents!

Entrepreneur!

Manager!

Losing one

Is tragic.

Losing both

Is numbing.

Werekoa’s cup.

Is it holy

To

Pray to God?

Erect monuments?

Worship en mass?

To

Cheapen life

Cheat humans

Profess duty

Neglect calling

Avoid task

Smoulder the innocent?

Is it holy

To

Mourn with bereft

Comfort with words

Lavish with gifts

Tender with care,

who ought not

to have lost?

Alas,

It is Ghana!

After tragedy:

Duty calls

Sympathy flows

Tears fall

Prayers sound

Sycophants jump.

All false.

For

In a place

Life is cheapened

Duty is neglected

Funds are squandered

Tragedy is cooked

Orphans are engineered.

They are:

Managers not

Honourable not.

Humanitarians not.

They are slaughterers!

Double-Track School System: A Pointer to Resource-Based Learning

Once again, the Nations is engulfed in a din over changes being introduced at the secondary   educational level. There are several opinions, yet a close analyses indicates, basically a for-or-against-or-I told you so stance. Consequently, innovative ideas are drowned by the entrenched howls. The alarming reality is that Ghana’s educational system is stuck in the traditional mode. Majority of Ghanaians can perceive teaching and learning only in the physical classroom, where a teacher delivers before learners. Breach that reality, and the nation gets a panic attack, hence, the furore over the intended double-track system.

That Information Technology has impacted heavily on education is amply demonstrated in Resource-Based Learning (RBL), which communities over the globe are utilizing in order to improve learning, as well as expand access to education. RBL utilises virtual classroom, thereby, making teaching and learning convenient processes. If our system had tapped RBL even a little, the double-track approach would have been a smooth transition. Of course, in RBL computers and other gadgets are required. Ironically, the concept of RBL was conceived in Ghana about two decades ago.

In the nineties, the Ministry of Education introduced ICT centres to designated secondary schools. Surrounding schools utilised the facility for studies. The centres were resourced with computers and teachers. Currently, most schools, if not all, have ICT centres. Until last year, a constituent of tuition was allocated to ICT. Question: If one should visit any of the schools, would one find the centres actively operational? Would the student:computer ratio be conducive for effective learning? Would one find that centres have Internet connectivity? Would one find that students have regular, open access to the centres? Most important of all, would the students have an inkling about the enormous resources buried in the computers?

The NDC Government recently introduced a one computer per learner practice; at least, I saw pupils using such computers in my neighbourhood. Communities also have ICT centres. Were all those measures not motivated by the concept of RBL? Paradoxically, teaching and learning at all levels get steeped in the physical classroom by the day. At the primary and secondary levels, teachers are passionate about extra-classes, which compound the time learners spend in the physical classroom, reducing potential time for exploring RBL. Of course, extra teaching earns the teacher extra income; RBL would reduce or erase that source, but one must not forget that the teacher earns a salary for teaching.

My point is that we introduce progressive concepts but fail to sustain or develop such to maximum benefits. Even at the tertiary level, RBL remains a foreign concept. Many teachers limit learners to plagiarised hand-outs, or books written by self or friends. If learners research and demonstrate new ideas in feedback activity, or purchase not the prescribed material, they might actually fail the course or get a minimum grade. Instead of exposing students to extensive intellectual material, apostles of handouts starve students of overabundant learning resources.

In fact, most teachers are not RBL savvy, and they deny learners the opportunity to explore such. Yet, 21^st Century education is technologically-based; Google is a rich resource. The painful conclusion for one is that as a people, we are not dynamic. We steadfastly choose to live in the past, rendering the present static in order to fulfil immediate desires. Tomorrow will never come. We profess a concern for children and youth but demonstrate pure selfishness. Thus when an innovative idea is introduced, it is sabotaged.

May be I lack attention, but I am yet to hear the Ministers of Education and Finance emphasize the RBL dimension in the double-track dialogue. One minister lamely argued that the students would be in the house fulltime, but for the Free SHS intervention; therefore, the double-track system gives them an option to halve the time they would otherwise spend at home. Wrong. The time spent at home cost the tax payer. Besides, if the right structures are not put in place, the six months in school would be entirely wasted. Please intervene with RBL!

The double-track move should be a collaboration between parents, community and state. The average contemporary Ghanaian parent continues to offload parental training to the teacher. The former bombards children with material things, neglects training. Elsewhere, home-schooling has become a trend, because parents are wary of the poor school environment. In Ghana, parents fall over themselves to secure boarding facilities for children, glossing some implications. It is about time the Government asked such parents: How have you neglected your child(ren)? That should be followed with this statement: it is about time you assumed your role as a parent; oversee six months of learning, because your children would be assessed.

Government is going to share responsibility of children with parents and community; it is ensuring that the resources invested in are utilised in training children. Government is gradually complementing the physical classroom with the virtual one. Learners would be in charge of their learning. So the six months at home would be RBL time. If the Government has not planned to that extent, then a crucial gap must be filled immediately.

If we had a national database that could tell the income level of parents and guardians, those in good income brackets would be required to purchase computers and Internet connectivity for their wards; the state and other stakeholders would supply the real needy, so that all learners would receive the full complement of RBL. Currently, every Ghanaian parent would cry to Government for a computer. There must be a way out. The beauty of RBL is that endless learning opportunities could be tracked by both teacher and learner, be independently, ethically assessed. The planning has probably not covered the full extent of RBL, but what prevents us from packaging it now? The double-track system a potential waste? No, it is the potential pathway to 21^st Century education for Ghana, and worth every strategic investment.

Registrar General: Wrong Move

Since the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development asserted that the private sector is the engine of growth, the expression almost assumed the status of a cliché in Ghana, yet the private sector is really hemmed in for sustainable practices. State institutions set up to support the private sector tend to subject the sector to practices that disempower, rather than empower. Sometimes, one wonders if such institutions bombard the private sector with harsh requirements simply to sabotage government’s plans to boost private sector development – employ the teeming masses trapped by vicious poverty.

Business registration in Ghana is a most frustrating experience; even the literate get treated like illiterate. Forms must be filled by an officer of the Department. Regardless of how meticulous an applicant attempts to be, flaws would be detected, and the forms would eventually be filled by an officer. The baffling aspect is that the forms are quite straight-forward. Then there is renewal of registration; this article targets the flat penalty fee of GH ¢350.00 for defaulting businesses.

I just visited the Department in Western Region, where an official showed me a stack of renewal/re-registration forms discarded by business owners who had been upset by the fine. I was informed that all the processes had been taken care of until the payment stage when the businesses were given a bill upped by GH ¢350.00. I asked myself whether the businesses in question would redeem themselves or abandon the registration activity. The question was prompted by this admission from the official: “There is nothing we can do about it” [emphasis mine]. That is the innate statement used not only to distance self from the rigidity that characterises administrative procedures in Ghana, but to also legitimize nauseous bureaucracy which actually pushes back national development. I will explain my point.

The paper utilised in preparing the discarded registration forms alone cost the tax-payer a fortune. Should the businesses involved decide to abandon the processes, a hefty sum from already limited funds would be wasted. The businesses may not suffer, because they would simply register new businesses, in which case, the only loser would be Government – in reality, the tax-payer. The Government is encouraging entrepreneurship in Ghana in a bid to offload some employment responsibilities to the private sector. The recent decision by the Registrar General may imply business shut-down, negating Government’s effort to partner the private sector in boosting existing business. The loss of revenue would hurt the Government badly.

If one believes the official about the Department’s helplessness in the implementation of the directive, then the directive comes from a higher office, so one would logically conclude that Government is sabotaging its own effort in empowering the poor and the youth. My argument is probably incongruous but not impossible, though my respect for this Government sways me from such belief. I am always highly suspicious of the weather and politicians, but I pray that my suspicion remains just that.

In other words, there is a pragmatic solution than the one embarked on by the Registrar General or whoever might be behind that directive. I will never advocate that tax defaulters or exploitative businesses be allowed to go scot-free; however, I am against the idea of the flat penalty fee, for now. I am naïve when it comes to economics, but I know that Government should seize every opportunity to recoup money owed it rather than dissipate funds or close down avenues to funds. What if the penalty was reduced to GH ¢50.00 as a warning against a hefty sum next year? It should be accompanied by intensive public education about honouring taxes and a warning that, henceforth, a pinching penalty awaits businesses which default in registration. If that motivates even half of defaulters to renew on time, imagine the funds that could stream into Government coffers, in addition to legitimizing the statuses of businesses.

There could be categorization of penalties; some businesses are registered but not being operated for various reasons. Such ones should be penalised with a small amount. Of course, if Ghana had a reliable database of residents, it would be easy to determine from income levels whether a business is operational or not. Then the inactive ones could be given the necessary tax relief,

A cross-section of Ghanaians is very ignorant about taxes; they are proud when they evade taxes. Is this not the perfect time to educate the populace about the role of taxes in sustaining the free SHS, the effective implementation and sustainability of the “One District, One Factory Policy”? Is it not about time the populace was educated about the realities of getting to the “Ghana beyond Aid” destination? Indeed, it is time to scream to Ghanaians that international aid and donations are taxes from the contributing nations, and that we are pathetic when we simply squander our funds and scramble for others’ sweat funds? A multi-sectorial approach would be most effective in such sensitization processes.

The fact is that the Registrar General should think beyond penalising businesses; it should focus on law enforcement. Businesses must be renewed annually and taxes filed aside from that filed for Ghana Revenue Authority. That civic responsibility should be drummed home to business owners. In business proposal documents, aspiring business owners are informed that taxes are paid according to income; therefore, businesses enable owners to earn higher income, which translates into higher taxes. In other words, people should know the income implications of setting up businesses. Ghanaian businesses cannot play ignorance forever; the Registrar General should start that sensitization NOW.

The education path might be more effective in turning business owners into willing tax payers than the penalty slapped on them. In the current situation, unscrupulous officers would devise means to help businesses evade the penalty, then collect gratitude money. Once again, the nation loses. My question: Is the Registrar General or the source of the directive willing to be objective about this, adopt a holistic approach or will it maintain its myopic stance, risk alienating businesses and deprive Government of desperately-needed funds?

What Would be Better than Mathematical Sets

In an apparent grand gesture, some well-meaning Ghanaians distributed mathematical sets to a cross-section of candidates writing the 2018 Basic Education Certificate Examination. Considering the financial constraints of some Ghanaians, one would not be surprised that an appreciable number of the candidates might not have owned mathematical sets until they received the gifts. The benefactors deserve gratitude for thinking about deprived parents and children.

However, the situation could have been handled in a different and more pragmatic manner. Mathematical literacy is very low among basic school children. Performance in maths examination has been declining over the years. The poor performance gets replicated at the secondary level. Concerned educators really are baffled about how mathematics is handled in both basic and secondary school classrooms, so that graduates end up lacking basic mathematical literacy.

The pragmatic approach, therefore, should be tackling the core problem, the teaching and learning challenges that negate classroom efforts aimed at imparting numeracy to pupils. Amongst other measures, classroom practices from kindergarten through senior high school ought to be revisited for radical improvement. Personnel in charge of the classrooms should be retrained and monitored effectively for performance. Serious thought should be given to ways through which information technology could be utilised not only to enhance studies in mathematics, but also to ensure that pupils and students begin to like the subject. A likeness for the subject would be the best motivation for learners to pursue mathematical literacy.

Teachers should strive to bring reality into mathematical classrooms. In rural areas, where electricity and electronic devices are in short supply, innovative teachers could utilise local materials such as bottle tops, stones/pebbles, sticks to explore numeracy in kindergarten and lower primary. In the upper classes, local settings could be used to explain concepts and formulae. Numerous examples could be designed from our market settings alone. Yes, mathematics could be fun and practical for learners.

In other words, the problem facing learners is not just about lacking working tools or equipment. Giving mathematical sets to pupils who may not able to draw the y and x axis, let alone plot lines defeats the intention behind the offer. In the good old days, students were taught how to use the tools in the set, in geometry. My mathematics teacher, Mr. Osei-Sarfo, patiently took us through the process of placing a pencil in the compass so as to be able to plot and chart precise lines. Even in secondary form 1, majority of us were challenged by that simple process. The teacher kept repeating that if we failed to place the pencil right, our lines will not be accurate. We had a good sense of humour and made so much fun of one another whenever the compasses looked like broken necks.

I have been thinking about that experience since I read about the mathematical set gifts to the pupils. I asked myself: How many of the pupils would know how to use the tools to solve mathematical problems? What is more important, how many of the candidates would really comprehend the problems that would be given them to solve, which comprehension would guide them to utilise the tools in the set accurately? In short, are the students even prepared for the mathematics examination?

Whilst I may speculate about the questions, I know for a certainty that teaching/learning mathematics is bogged down with the severest of challenges. The challenges effectively render the giving of mathematical sets ostentatious, rather than pragmatic. I recommend that in future, the mathematical sets should be given to needy pupils, at least, six months before the final examination. That way, even if teachers are not able to help pupils utilise the tools, the latter may get assistance from parents or siblings.

Above all, maths-inclined teachers from secondary and tertiary institutions, parents and students could be mobilised to volunteer their time to complement primary teachers’ efforts in teaching fundamental mathematics. Such volunteers would practise sums with pupils. Volunteering might be for thirty minutes or an hour, yet it might go a long way to motivate pupils to grasp basic mathematical concepts.

Pupils and students need to understand that mathematics not only helps humans to understand our universe, but it aids us in solving daily problems. We deal with mathematics in everyday life. Learners should be helped to understand that they apply the principles of mathematics throughout the day, and that the classroom lessons help them to put a name/concept to things they do every day. When mathematics is reduced to such simple terms, learners might change the mentality that maths is too difficult a subject to grasp.

The Nation does not have a choice: If the objective is to create entrepreneurs, critical thinkers and innovators for society, then mathematics should be offered to learners in a pragmatic manner. Teachers should sharpen their numeracy skills before their teaching can have an impact on learners. Of course, pupils must develop enthusiasm for learning mathematics. A proactive approach could ensure that. Currently, a cross-section of the candidates may not know how to use the tools in the mathematical set. However, if they really understood the underlying principles of the subject, they could improvise the tools from local materials to demonstrate applied knowledge. All stakeholders of education must join forces to ensure that pupils have enabling classrooms for fun teaching/learning of mathematics. This is not the time for ostentation, please!

Refining the Entire Person: The Ultimate Goal of Education

The massive expansion in access to education, … is adding many years of schooling, but much less learning, during childhood and youth

                        African Development Forum Series

From prehistoric cultures through the Old and New World Civilizations, through classical cultures, education consistently targeted the refinement of individuals. Education was used to mould children’s behaviour, guide them in learning about their culture, preparing them for their role in society. Whereas the purpose of education has evolved over the centuries due to societal needs and aspirations, as well as technology, to mention these, aspects such as transmission of acquired knowledge and refining of behaviour for diverse reasons have not changed. Irrespective of their cultures, as children grow, they are taken through processes which enable them to become assets to their respective societies, even as they cultivate habits which endow them with personal dignity. Thus, the concept of education has evolved from the simple process of enculturation to a multi-purposed human endeavour.[i]    

This paper advocates that for maximum benefits of education, not only does the entire person has to be targeted, but the teaching/learning processes must simultaneously prepare the learner for current community, nation and global needs. Education must also endow the educated with adaptable skills which would enable them to successfully navigate their way through complex professional, socio-cultural and economic changes. Hence, in the 21^st Century when technology rapidly dictates changes in almost all facets of human endeavour, education is effective if beneficiaries are empowered to be equally adept at utilizing human intelligence and technology in a balanced manner to address diverse personal and societal needs. The paper thus critiques the current major teaching approach – extra classes – and recommends a humanist approach, rather than the current banking classroom practice.

The teaching/learning processes ought to aid learners to become independent learners who can navigate their own learning to their desired professional and socio-cultural spaces[ii]. Contemporary learners have the advantage of physical and technological exploration of knowledge, which effectively creates global opportunities for personal and societal manoeuvres[iii]. In other words, good education engenders a certain versatility in beneficiaries, which versatility is no fluke but must be nurtured across spaces, especially in the classroom. A 20^th Century Brazilian educator located the nurturing teacher/learner relationship in dialogue. He decried the practice whereby education is operated as “banking – the educator making ‘deposits’ in the educatee"[iv], which practice currently aptly captures Ghanaian education.

Curriculum developers plan teaching/learning of subjects in chunks of information, which chunks are serialised in small units of information, spaced to cover oral instruction, written and practical activity, and possible application of ideas gleaned from the delivery processes, all timed to aid quality information delivery, reflective reading for assimilation, and eventual evaluation. A teacher has the professional and ethical responsibility to honour the time-bound syllabus. Failure to do that detracts from a teacher’s claim to professionalism. However, an appreciable majority of teachers, especially in basic and secondary education, have legitimised extra teaching – at an extra cost to parents –on the pretext of overloaded syllabi.

What was done sparingly in the past to fill genuine information gaps on the course syllabus has become a regular activity for most schools. At the primary level, extra classes are organized from the kindergarten level to the JHS level. The only exceptional category remains babies in the womb. The situation is no different at the secondary level, where a cross-section of teachers deliberately cover a portion of the syllabus during regular school hours and cover the rest during extra classes. Some secondary schools have legalised extra classes for extra income; in such situations, the general time-table has been extended for an hour. A cross-section of science teachers organize extra-extra classes, sometimes at odd hours, disadvantaging day students in the process, in order to cover the syllabus. Of course, students might be told that the extra time is optional, but when just about every classmate class is participating, how could a handful opt out, especially if the teacher stresses that the extra time is necessary in order to cover the syllabus? 

Ideally, all contemporary pupils and students in Ghana should be super geniuses, considering the rate at which teachers bombard them with information. However, the evidence in tertiary classrooms indicate that the fixation on extra time for teaching/learning is rather turning learners’ brains dormant. Increasingly, we are getting students who can barely read, cannot construct sentences in English, after learning English for twelve years. What is worse, students possess hardly any comprehension skill, so the concepts of analytical reading, critical thinking can barely be broached in most cases. In effect, the average contemporary Ghanaian learner is not an engaged reader, thinker nor writer. A critical question: Are students spending the same time on reflective reading as they do receiving information? In most tertiary classroom situations, the answer would be no. Since students can apparently not defend the certificates that send them to tertiary classrooms, stakeholders have genuine reasons to contemplate the educational system.

         

The 2014 World Economic Forum report envisions a new target for the 21^st Century education; it advocates that technology should be utilised to nurture social and emotional learning. That vision has no room for mere dumping of information on learners. Rather, learners should be able to communicate, collaborate and solve problems, which qualities could be acquired through constant dialogue, exposure to situations or role play, the analysis of which could aid learners to develop comprehension and critical thinking skills[v].

Source: 2014 World Economic Forum Report

The global body stresses lifelong learning skills, not short-term ones which enable learners to memorise information in order to pass examination and promptly forget the knowledge acquired. It emphasises a balance in seeking intellectual abilities and social insights, learning practical and active skills and developing attitudes and values. That constitutes effective teaching/learning[vi]. Such products are able to defend their certificates because acquisition of accurate knowledge renders them competent professionally, technologically, economically and socio-culturally.

Source: 2014 New Economic Forum Report

Considering that ICT dictates the pace in global education, some honest questions are necessary for evaluating current classroom positions in Ghana:

·         Are the schools incorporating ICT culture in their daily teaching/learning activities?

·          How are they utilising information technology to nurture pupils’/students’ potential in engineering, mathematics, agricultural studies?

·         How are the schools utilising computer programmes to aid foreign language studies? How are the schools being innovative, and practical in addressing critical issues such as waste management?

·         Are students being introduced to extra-curricular activities that might unleash entrepreneurship potential?

·         Are the schools operating in sync with current national policies such as digitalization?

·         Ultimately, are the schools imparting 21^st Century Skills?

All stakeholders ought to consider these questions if we really are targeting proactive education.

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[i] Education. (2018). Pulled from the World Wide Web https://www.britannica.com/topic/education

[ii] Rogers, C. (2012). Experiential learning: Instructional design. Pulled from the World Wide Web

       http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/experiental-learning.html

[iii] Oliver, B., Nikoletatos, P., von Konsky, B., Wilkinson, H., Ng, J. Crowley, R. Moore, R. & Townsend, R. (2009). Curtin’s iPortfolio: An   online space for creating, sharing and showcasing evidence of learning. Proceedings from ascilite Auckland ’09. Pulled from the World Wide Web  http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/oliver-poster.pdf

[iv] Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002). Paulo Freire and informal education’, the encyclopaedia of informal education. Pulled from the World Wide Web [http://infed.org/mobi/paulo-freire-dialogue-praxis-and-education/

[v] 2014 World Economic Forum Report

[vi] General Objectives of Learning. (2018). Pulled from the World Wide Web https://www.britannica.com/science/pedagogy