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