Celebrating  International Mother Tongue Day February 21

Twi Annwensem

Nhumu

Sԑ woka sԑ kͻ a,
Wubetumi aka sε gyina?

Woka sε yε a,
Wubetumi aka sε gyae?

Sε wͻgyae a

Amanfõ bεyε ͻman?

nsõ bεdane ade?

dεmdi bεkͻ?

Awufo besͻre

ma adwootwa agyae?

Wͻnnyε wo de oo

Nanso

Wͻsom bo ma obi:

Awofo

Mma

Abusuafo

Ayͻnkofo

 Adͻfo

Wͻasa wͻ man mu!

Adesεe,

Adehwere.

Meyԑ atetekwaa.
Menim kakraa:

“Wͻnnhwԑ tumm mu ntia mu.”

Enti

M’asεmmisa tiawa:

Wubetumi ahye ade,

a wonnsεe ade?

 

Marginalizing the Mother Tongue in Ghana is Destroying Education

 

Increasingly, the Ghanaian tertiary classroom is receiving learners who cannot effectively handle the English Language. Reading is a chore for such learners, apparently, due to the poor comprehension skills. Reading is no fun when a reader has challenges understanding text. The students in question cannot produce coherent text, so they plagiarize. Asking such students to apply concepts learnt in class is a thorny experience, due to poor comprehension. It is indeed baffling that learners could have studied English for about fourteen years yet communicate so poorly in the Language.

Ironically, learners are losing grasp of English at a time when many Ghanaian parents tend to speak English with their children at home, right from infancy. The former erroneously believe that just by using English, their children would acquire proficiency in the major language. Such parents could be literate or semi-literate, they struggle to speak English with their children. Ghana’s high illiteracy rate, coupled with porous handling of language policies across levels of education, culminate in many residents leaving school with abysmal English skills. Therefore, the English spoken at home tends to be below standard.

Worst of all, many private schools neither teach Ghanaian languages nor allow learners to use them in school. Some would even instruct learners not to speak the mother tongue at home. Therefore, when parents attempt to communicate in the first tongue, their children would not be engaged. The situation effectively creates linguistic interlopers who, unwittingly, squander the mother tongue and flip flop in the second language. Poor language skills effectively hamper learning, especially, at the formative level, rendering socio-cultural, intellectual development processes shallow as learners progress. Instead of producing knowledgeable and skilled professionals, we are, currently, mostly creating charlatans.

The situation has persisted for a considerable time, so questionable knowledge and skills have permeated the sectors, from health through service, legal, energy, transport housing, to mention six. When major stakeholders possess porous knowledge and skills, they fail to appreciate service and value. Consequently, there is hardly service delivery in Ghana now, but shoddiness and exploitation.

Evidently, slighting the mother tongue is yielding poor dividends in the Ghanaian society. Growing generation are rapidly losing the linguistic values and legitimate world view inherent in the mother language. Sacrificing the language also implies squandering vast opportunities for job creation – translation, writing, publishing – in a country saddled with a high unemployment rate. When indigenous people elsewhere are fighting vehemently to save their languages, many indigenous Ghanaians trample upon indigenous languages. Instead of embracing multilingualism, many Ghanaians advocate dominant language supremacy.

Of the estimated 6,000 languages of the world, 43 % is endangered; UNESCO reports that a language is lost every fortnight. Ghanaian languages might be in that category, considering the growing trend of poor usage among indigenes. As the world marks International Mother Tongue Day on February 21^st, well-meaning Ghanaians ought to reflect on the grave implications of marginalizing indigenous languages. Improvement can come through concerted efforts only.

The Education Ministry ought to revisit the language policy and strategize strict implementation. Private schools in the country must be obliged to offer Ghanaian languages. Teacher certification at the basic and secondary levels should be conditional upon a teacher’s proficiency in, at least, one Ghanaian language. Both at home and school, children should be encouraged to use their mother tongue. Such bold steps would, gradually, ensure a balance in the use of mother tongue and English.

Families ought to know that marginalizing the mother tongue is a delinquent stance, because it compromises a child’s learning experience. Conversely, when a child receives the mother tongue through childcare and formative learning years, her/his learning experience is smoothened. There are diverse, valid and human reasons for speaking and valuing Ghanaian indigenous languages. On Sunday, February 21^st, every Ghanaian ought to promise the self to learn to be an effective user of the mother tongue and show appreciation for its socio-cultural, intellectual and linguistic endowments. May the International Mother Language Day motivate all to contemplate the question: Do I desire to know the values inherent in my mother tongue? 

COVID 19: Precipitating Presidential Decrees

With the confirmation of COVID 19 in Ghana, citizens are urging the President to close all borders. Closing the borders is necessary yet not the most fundamental step, especially, when safe handwashing in public places is not practised assiduously, movements within the country has not been restricted, large public meetings are still occurring, and handshaking is still a common practice. A cross-section of employees are wearing white gloves for some protection. However, it is crucial to distance oneself from the infected, seek medical advice immediately one observes the symptoms in one. One must cough or sneeze into one’s shoulder or tissues. Most importantly and humanely, a person should self-isolate immediately s/he experiences the symptoms.

In February 2020, WHO warned governments: “Be prepared; Corona Virus is coming”. Epidemiologists have furthered that COVID 19 is going to get worse before it can be contained. Therefore, to fight the virus with vigour, all recommended safe practices must be observed simultaneously. Logically, Heads of state must make tough decisions that might affect their territorial sovereignties and beyond.

The President has outlined resources for tackling the infection; however, Central Government provisions should be complemented at regional, municipal and district, institutional and domestic levels. Therefore, I implore the President to order all agencies to establish safe handwashing facilities. Sydney has inscribed in its skies: “Wash HANDS”. Some African countries have placed standing washing basins in public places such as markets, lorry stations. I am also suggesting to President Akufo-Addo to order all metropolitan, municipal and district authorities, administrative machineries to establish handwashing facilities across their jurisdictions. In the absence of ceramic wash basins, Jemima handwashing containers, regularly filled will soapy water, will suffice.

And the President must not accept the salutary no funds stoppage from any of the stakeholders. Each and every metropolis, municipality, district is home to markets and lorry stations. Occupants of stalls are obliged to honour the assembly’s daily ticket system. Commercial drivers also pay daily tolls. The President must decree that GPRTU/PROTOA and each Assembly should use its ticket funds for the next one week, solely, to purchase handwashing facilities i.e. water, containers, soap. Each container should be fitted with a tube that would ensure that dirty water goes to a drain, not muddy occupying areas.

The size of a market or station will determine the quantity of facilities. Once established, it would be a matter of replenishing supplies and replacing worn-out containers. The Assemblies/GPRTU/PROTOA do not have to collect the money for the procurement of the facilities. Each should just announce to stall occupants and union members that within the next seven days, ticket money should be collected by the occupants/members and be used to purchase the necessary quantity of Jemima containers, soap and water for each block of 5-10 stalls or per a station. It would be demotivating if people should walk too far to wash their hands. Purchases must be backed by proper receipts. For sustainability of the provision, ticket funds for one day should be reserved, henceforth, for replenishment and maintenance. Thus, the people will own the facility, benefit directly from their tax and undoubtedly appreciate the transparency.

Within that same week, the Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary education should receive a report from each university, college and any other post-secondary institution, detailing handwashing facilities spread conveniently across campuses. The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service will facilitate those provisions at the basic and secondary levels – private and public. School fees has a sanitation component, which should be utilized for handwashing facilities. Ministries, hospitals, patrons of all other public spaces should so oblige through their internal funds. Those who default should be prosecuted for endangering public health.

COVID 19 is a forceful reminder of how quickly things can get out of hand, that human progress notwithstanding, nature wields absolute control over humanity, and not the other way round. Even so, WHO has advised that “all countries can change the course of this pandemic." Washing hands with soap, covering one’s mouth when coughing or sneezing are very important acts now. Each and every one has that responsibility

Evacuating Stranded Ghanaians in China

Yesterday in the news, the opposition gave the government a three-day ultimatum to bring home Ghanaians stranded in China due to the Corona virus. Apparently, students have run out of food supplies, but they cannot go out, which means they are probably starving. Of course, if they are not infected, they probably will be better off leaving China, especially, with the information that Wuhan authorities concealed vital information from the public. The opposition is suggesting that the affected be quarantined in Ghana. Countries are evacuating their residents in China, so if Ghana followed suit, it would be in order. The major concern would be the usual Ghanaian attitude.

Countries such as Australia can mark out a location as a quarantine area, and affected Australians would comply, out of duty and conscientiousness. That cannot be guaranteed in Ghana, where people usually disrespect rules and regulations and sacrifice pragmatism for religious gullibility. Whichever location would be designated may not be beyond the reach of sensational and dubious people of God. Such might attribute infection, should there be any, to the witches and offer to pray for the infected to be released from the powers of witchcraft.

There is also the danger from people of influence such as politicians, rulers, business people, executives and other personalities in high places. Such might use their connections to get release papers from the high powers that be, so that their quarantined relatives and acquaintances might be granted permission to leave the limited space in order to rejoin the larger community. Of course, such ones might provide the nauseous excuse: Nyame nti, biribiara nsi", which literally translates, due to protection from God, nothing will happen, never mind that amidst this chorus, millions die every year when they could have lived. But we are averse to pragmatism.

The most probable explanation for not having worked ourselves to extinction due to our acts of omission is that “Africans gems are not harmful”, as we say in Ghana. However, we are in unknown waters here. The Corona virus is definitely not African and definitely, definitely harmful, worse, fatal. Therefore, should our people be brought home for quarantine, and should the people resort to the usual Ghanaian nefarious ways, we can be sure that the Corona Virus, should any have happened to have brought some home, would attack and kill swiftly and mercilessly. Not even Ebola could be relied upon to fight the Corona – virus to virus, savagery versus savagery! I just wish that the opposition had added suggestions about safe quarantining measures. Whether we are here at home, or they are in China and must be rescued, Ghanaians are Ghanaians and must be equally respected and protected.

Therefore, since the ultimatum ends tomorrow, Friday February 13, 2020, I am also giving the opposition 24-hours to produce pragmatic measures regarding security that would ensure that the evacuees would not put the lives of residents at home in jeopardy. Plans to evacuate must be matched by security measures for ensuring that evacuees remain quarantined until such time that it would be absolutely clear that they cannot infect anyone before they would be allowed to reintegrate.

Textbooks & Teaching /Learning Materials: The Narrative Must Change

I have written a number of times that, currently, we do not have education in Ghana; rather, we have commercialization of information and superficiality. I have taken that stance due to the entrenched position we have taken to practise dated systems of learning rather than adopting contemporary dynamic approaches to teaching/learning. If I myself had any doubt about that position, this nauseous argument about teaching/learning materials for the revised curriculum has cemented my opinion.

In the last month, I have had to listen to personalities who should be savvy about education verbally flog the Government about failing to supply textbooks and teaching/learning materials. Metro TV featured a former Deputy Minister of Education who echoed that sentiment. A key personality from GES has rightly explained that curriculum revision does not mean a complete overhauling of the contents. Though changes have been introduced, the bulk of content has remained.   I expected the former minister, who stated that new textbooks were printed for the schools in 2016, to explain to the host that those textbooks could still be used to teach. However, he also wailed the absence of textbooks.

I have a question for all those screaming for hardcopy textbooks: Where were you when education moved into the 21^st Century? The absence of hardcopy texts in no way obstructs effective teaching/learning. The foreword to the new English syllabus states in part: The curriculum encourages the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning – ICTs as teaching and learning materials (emphasis mine). Wherein lies the justification for the hullaballoo for hardcopy textbooks? The World Wide Web has enabled the placement of enormous quality, innovative, interactive teaching/learning materials on the Internet, which information proactive teachers can access directly.

There are authentic, open online learning resources which are available to teachers across the globe. Google has brought virtual reality to the classroom. The Google Classroom App makes teaching/learning interesting, innovative, interactive. The community dialogue that accompanies the App. enables teachers to share experiences across the world. Questions and challenges can be shared for constructive, innovative responses. Edutopia and Empatico are similar sites that offer a lifeline to teachers across school levels. Enthusiastic teachers take advantage of such resources to improve teaching and classroom interaction. There is opportunity for teachers to explore synchronous or asynchronous channels in the virtual classroom. Indeed, there is no shortage of teaching/learning materials. However, there is a list of qualities in acute shortage: Innovation, commitment, enthusiasm, diligence, dynamism, critical perspectives, all capped by failure to utilize resources effectively.

One heavily underutilized resource is the android or iPhone which any teacher can afford these days. Through that medium, a teacher can access online resources to teach the new syllabus. Parents can guide their children to utilize the former’s phone (or computers) to research good learning materials online. All the telecommunication companies in the country claim variously that where there is a sky, their networks can be accessed. This is the time to test their claim. If teachers/learners are unable to access the syllabus and helpful materials online from location, the telecoms, not the Government, should be taken to task.

One must deconstruct the situation in order to get the actual picture. For many a Ghanaian teacher, teaching implies a physical classroom with a writing board. It is difficult to imagine other alternatives; such elements prefer to maintain the status quo. Therefore, the possibility of online teaching/learning resources is the remotest reality. The absence of textbooks implies failure. Additionally, hardcopy textbooks has financial implications for a cross-section of the publishing industry. Materials can be sold online, but given our penchant for sticking to old ways, one wonders whether such options have occurred to publishing stakeholders.

If one brought back the Effective or Practical English books or the Primary English Courses, one could teach the new syllabus effectively. What is needed is a teacher’s ability to adapt text to contemporary situations, locate lessons in pragmatic analysis, help learners to apply text in practical terms in order to make meaning out of them. Such measures would equally ensure that learners take the centre, initiate some of the learning processes. In such situations, the teacher becomes the facilitator who helps the learner to develop a sense of autonomy in the learning process. That is the innovation the system needs to become education again.

New textbooks would not automatically imply teacher innovation, commitment, as well as learner enthusiasm. If the apathy does not change, nothing would. Above all, if we do not abjure commercialization of information in order to target knowledge, we would continue to dig our own graves. The only way to reverse the degeneration of education is to yank the system from the clutches of the 18^th Century, flung it into the 21^st Century, so that we can pursue the Knowledge Economy. Only the strongest act of willpower can achieve that. The challenge is not about the absence of hardcopy textbooks and teaching/learning materials. It is the test of educating the heart and mind for human-centred ideas that promote the quality of human existence through dignity, diligence, determination, and responsibility. Let’s work towards changing the narrative to that effect.  Our call!

Technical University-Government Impasse: The Leverage

One frustrating aspect of industrial action is that any union member who does not support the call is generally considered dissenting. However, it can be unjust to succumb to such pressure and echo union’s call for strike, especially, when crucial ethical, professional issues are completely sidelined in the quest for better staff remuneration. The full-blown industrial action by technical universities (TU) ought to be analysed, not only from employee-employer point of view, but also from the perspectives of the customer i.e. the learner or  other primary stakeholder – and by association the parents, tax-payer, industry, community. No one is averse to some extra money, yet the ground for demanding such money should align with classroom reality and currency of body of knowledge being imparted to the 21^st Century vocational learner.

The most worrying part of industrial action by learning institutions remains that it is almost always motivated by staff needs. The harsh silencing of the customer – the taught – lends an ironic dimension to industrial actions. In business ethics, the customer is always right, yet each time, learning institutions and governments flesh out monetary issues – the former seeking more, the latter seeking less payment, the taught is not consulted. Unfair! We are dealing with the millennial generation, which is very distrustful of authority due to such dubiousness and neglect. That generation considers authority selfish; within the educational context, both teacher and administrator constitute part of the authority that the millennial generation distrusts.

And they have several reasons for suspicion within the context of this layered industrial action: The Technical Education Workers Union (TEWU) is agitating that it has not been part of the negotiation. Administrators also have their own dimension. Meanwhile, the negotiation has gotten to the stage where Government feels it has made overly concessions to the TUs, who in turn are not satisfied with the offer on the table. This could have been the stage where the strike could have been halted, so that Government’s offer could be referred to TU constituents. They could have discussed the offer at length for an informed consensus on acceptance or otherwise. By this rejection, the representatives have, in a way, disenfranchised constituents.

Ironically, all the major stakeholders but the taught are speaking; who speaks for the silenced learner? Since there has been no reference to the actual working environment, pertinent questions need to be asked in order to place the industrial action in the appropriate professional context: What type of curricula are being run by the TUs? Are learners being taught what they need to survive in the 21^st Century workplace? How are learners being taught? Are TU classrooms experiential learning spaces where competent knowledge is created and shared between the teacher and the taught? Are TU curricula based on the global Knowledge Economy? How has 21^st Information Technology impacted both theoretical and practical instruction in the TU classroom? What is industry opinion of the skills TU graduates present to the workforce? It is time the learner spoke.

If these questions drove the negotiations, it would imply a simultaneous consideration of the needs of both teacher and taught, which would be the ethical approach. The educational system has continued to be teacher-centred, so learners constantly get shortchanged. The unassertive nature of the average Ghanaian means that the marginalized youth might not muster the courage to question the status quo. Therefore, the grown-ups must do the ethical thing by making students’ learning interests premium in the negotiation for better staff remuneration.

Currently, the TU classroom is bogged down by a poor research culture, though technical universities elsewhere are known by high-powered research which continues to improve quality existence across the globe. Universities in other communities are championing the Knowledge Economy in their classrooms, directing learners to quality researched information on the World Wide Web. In the Ghanaian TU classroom, a cross-section of teachers rather limit learners to scanty information in local books, emaciated material labelled handouts, which learners must procure. Even though students pay ICT fee, the TUs do not invest significantly in ICT to enable teaching/learning to be immersed in technology. Furthermore, many teachers blissfully operate in the traditional classroom only, technologically disempowering learners across human endeavours.

The World Bank has emphasized that jobs anchor economic growth, so nations must invest in quality education and training, backgrounded by the digital economy. Ghanaian universities are failing in that direction – NABCO is a living proof. The teeming mass unemployment is another constant reminder. Clearly, there is an urgent need for a holistic approach to TU issues, and special emphasis must be placed on training and curricula.

One wonders why the TUs did not fight the NCTE academic audit, a bizarre activity which precipitated this migration. Apart from the sad fact that it did not use industrial parameters, in some cases, some auditors lied blatantly about teacher’s qualifications. The TU community did not fight the disservice. Moreover, the technician career is being rapidly extinguished, which implies an eventual extinction of hands-on training. Indeed, Stakeholders are collaborating to kill the job creation potential of the TUs. Consequently, disillusioned youth receive dubious divine calls, become scammers and other high-tech fraudulent elements, and we are collective victims. If we nurture the TU system, we protect ourselves, our children, and our property.

This is no time to drag issues that benefit TU staff only; address all issues that could compel the TUs to invest in the learning human capital. Invest in 21^st Technological education. They say the only language government understands is strike. Conversely, the only language the people understand is money; therefore, migrate the entire TU system. Government has its part, TU administrative machineries have their role, teachers have the key responsibility, and students have a duty. Let all play their roles simultaneously for a balanced well-being. Our collective call!

Technical University: Make Pedagogy Effective, and Attractive

In 2010, I was disappointed when the then Minister of Education, Mr. Teteh-Enyo, directed the military to prepare tents for possible accommodation of secondary school students. It was one of the consequences of the late President Mills’ decision to prematurely reverse the four-year secondary school policy to three years, swelling the intake for that year. Many Ghanaians had cautioned Government against the reversal, because the nation needed time to determine the effectiveness or otherwise of the four-year system. Backed by the National Association of Graduate Teachers, the Government, true to its campaign promise, reversed the policy. That decision did not augur well for Ghanaian education.

In 2019, I am apprehensive that the Government is negotiating with the Technical Universities to migrate the latter’s  salary to university level, which migration is leaving out effective pedagogy, hands-on training, learner competency, despite efforts to centralize Technical/Vocational Education. Currently, TUs largely operate dated curricula, so most graduates do not meet industrial standards. TUs compete with traditional universities in developing programmes, when they should be tailoring programmes to specific industrial needs. Even industry is wary of the porous skills TU graduates present to the workplace.

Subsequently, it is imperative to upgrade, not only TU salaries but the entire learning system, if this nation has even the slightest hope of getting that hollow conversion from polytechnic to TU fleshed out to competency-based training (CBT). That goal is effectively hampered by the current high numbers in the classrooms, the marginal input of industry in curriculum design and implementation, poor classroom methodologies, poor investment in teaching/learning resources, to name these. Consequently, competent hands-on training is currently endangered.

Quality has rapidly disappeared from the system, paving the way for commercialization of information.  Elsewhere, institutions design curriculum to meet changing times, leaner and industrial needs. Classroom knowledge is geared toward resource-based learning, current turbulence of climate change, migration, polarization of wealth and abject poverty, youth unemployment, population increase, gender inequality, international relations, extremism, to mention these. Other nations ensure that learners are prepared for the Knowledge Economy, accessible through the Internet. Information Communication Technology enables teachers/learners to positively navigate the turbulent global tides for competent skills and knowledge. Yet, the initiators of the conversion failed to invest in the TUs, the dynamism required to accentuate competent knowledge in the prevailing socio-cultural, geo-political and economic reality.

Driven by individual, community, national, and global demands, education elsewhere is learner-centred, not teacher-centred; neither is it exploited for political power. Learning institutions package pragmatic knowledge which might render graduates assets to community, rather than reduce the human agency of learners.  In certain communities, governments rely on learning institutions to drive development by adapting school curricula to generational, industrial, global needs and aspirations. That dynamism is missing from Ghanaian vocational education.

Logically, the teeming unemployed numbers of both lay and educated youth, the rapid increase in crime rate across the country should compel the TUs to design innovative long- and short-term programmes that endow various categories of learners with sustainable marketable skills. There must be a shift from the old, boring dry classroom method where teachers talk and students listen. Contemporary youth are labelled digital natives, hence, professional programmes run by the TUs should be oriented by information technology, which requires strategic investment, which investment is manageable due to annual IT fees paid by students.

Additionally, TUs have also received a big helping hand through the national digitization programme; the institutions should tap the digital database for classroom simulation. It is time that Ghanaian TUs replicated the technological transformation of the blackboard which has resulted in appreciable flexibility in higher education. Furthermore, Google has brought virtual reality to the institutional doorstep; the Google classroom is a super space for synchronous and asynchronous interaction. There are numerous other technological interventions currently being explored by dynamic educational institutions for effective teaching/learning approaches, even as industry offers glimpses into new, adaptable technological openings.

Yet, many TU classrooms are not spaces which effectively utilize technology to provide life-long learning skills to learners. Many teachers fail to take advantage of learning materials and communities, available online, which continue to inject so much currency into classroom approaches. Worst of all, a cross-section of teachers limit learners to scanty, poorly-packaged information, instead of directing learners to the vast quality information available online. To a large extent, information is dumped on learners, who simply memorize and reproduce such for marks. In the Vocational/Technical classroom, that approach is a rich recipe for dysfunctional graduates; that is our current location.

Amidst this regressive reality, TU salaries are being migrated in isolation. Unacceptable! There is a cliché among Ghanaian Trade Unions that the only language government understands is strike. Conversely, the only language unions understand is money. Therefore, why is the Government not driving a very hard bargain to compel the TUs to transform their classrooms into learner-centred spaces where teachers impart 21^st Century knowledge? 

The oversight bodies are just as culpable; the academic audit conducted by the NCTE, which catapulted the migration process was as baffling as it was sad. It neither focused on instructional nor industrial parameters. Institutions elsewhere treasure instructors who possess knowledge across disciplines; the auditors slighted a cross-section of such teachers. Consequently, the audit has actually deepened the theoretical trend of the TUs at a time when they desperately need to enrich hands-on training.  

Technical/Vocational Education has been labelled a disadvantaged relative of grammar education. No country lives that statement better than Ghana, the only losers being the youth, supposedly being prepared for the mantle of future leadership. It is improper to systematically focus on the well-being of teachers to the neglect of learners. The migration should simultaneously benefit teachers and the taught. If the nation genuinely believes that Technical/Vocation Education can snatch the youth from the doldrums that make them highly susceptible to anti-social behaviour, let effective pedagogy be Government’s bargaining tool in the current TU salary migration negotiation.