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Monday, 14 May 2018

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 21st 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 20th 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 21st 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 21st Century Skills?
All stakeholders ought to consider these questions if we really are targeting proactive education.




[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
[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