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Ghana: Time now for ‘democratic education’?
Ghana’s democratic dispensation in the 4th Republic is teaching us so many relevant lessons, as a nation.
And for our “new” democratic journey to “endure” , many Ghanaians strongly believe that our country must invest in the teaching and application of “democratic culture and education” at all levels of our educational ladder.
Education Minister
NCCE boss
Such Ghanaians hold the view that, even a lot of our current educated parliamentarians are “illiterates” in the subject of “democratic culture and education”; besides their “huge” deficiency in grasping the tenets of the 1992 Constitution.
Consequently, they insist that, for our evolving democratic culture to stand the test of time, Ghana must adequately invest in “democratic culture and education”.
Education is a vital component of any society, but especially of a democracy.
Indeed, the object of “democratic education” is to produce citizens who are independent, questioning and analytical in their outlook, yet deeply familiar with the precepts and practices of democracy and democratic culture.
Readers, democratic culture, in this sense, does not refer to art, literature or music, but the behaviours, practices and norms that define the ability of a people to govern themselves.
According to a renowned American scholar, Professor Chester E. Finn: “People may be born with an appetite for personal freedom, but they are not born with knowledge about the social and political arrangements that make freedom possible over time, for themselves and their children.
“Such things must be acquired. They must be learned.”
Professor Chester Finn says:”Education plays a singular role in free societies.
“While the education systems of other regimes are tools of those regimes; in a democracy, the regime is the servant of the people; people whose capacity to create , sustain and improve that regime, depends in a large measure, on the quality and effectiveness of the educational arrangements through which they pass.”
According to the 3rd President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson:”If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was , and never shall be.”
Democracy is said to be a process, a way of living and working together. It is evolutionary, not static. It requires cooperation; compromise and tolerance among all citizens. Making it work is hard, not easy.
Democracy does not demand that citizens be universally virtuous; only that they will be responsible.
Political competitors do not necessarily have to like one another, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge that each has a legitimate and important role to play. Moreover, the ground rules of society must encourage tolerance and civility in public debates.
Indeed, it is important to recognise that many conflicts in a democratic society are not between clear-cut “right” and “wrong”, but between differing interpretations of democratic rights and social priorities.
Really, individuals and groups must be willing, at a minimum, to tolerate each other’s differences, recognising that the other side has valid rights and legitimate point of view.
The various sides to a dispute, whether in a local neighbourhood or national Parliament, can then meet in a spirit of compromise and seek a specific solution that builds on the general principle of majority rule and minority rights.
Readers, some Ghanaians contend that there are many “democratic educators” in our tertiary institutions in the country and that if they are linked up with institutions like the National Commission for Civic Education; the Ghana Education Service and some non-governmental “democracy institutions”, a lot can be done in cultivating “democratic education” and culture across the mass of the people of Ghana.
Others are also calling for the establishment of a National Commission for Democracy; with the mandate to “conscientise” the mass of the people of Ghana about democratic education and culture and their practical application towards our national democratic development efforts.
So, readers, the ball is now kicked into the court of our national policy makers, to reflect and initiate a national conversation towards practical development of democratic education and culture and its actualisation in the Republic of Ghana.
Contact email/ WhatsApp of author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
BY G. FRANK ASMAH
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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