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The Ghana Education Service And Culture Education Delivery At The Pre-University Level: A Critical Appraisal By Michael Akenoo Theatre Critic.
Culture education at the pre-university level in Ghana is the sole responsibility of the Ghana Education Service.
This arduous and challenging responsibility has posed some difficulties to the Ghana Education Service in the context of funding, logistics, efficiency; and the achievement of the set down objectives as far as the Ghanaian culture education delivery is concerned at the pre-university level of the education ladder.
It is quite evident that there is much to be expected from the Ghana Education Service since it set up the culture unit besides its other divisions such as finance and administration, Inspectorate special education etc. This state of affairs is much worrying and needs to be addressed urgently.
It is clear that since the culture unit was set up, it has been continually discriminated against,and given very little attention as compared to the other divisions of the Ghana Education Service up to date.
As a result, the culture unit has continually and consistently been performing poorly and below standard up to date.
In fact, the culture unit has suffered much neglect to the detriment of the realization of the noble objectives for which it was up to achieve. Consequently, it has lost its direction as expected to benefit Ghana as far as the inculcation of the Ghanaian culture among the youth is concerned.
This state of affairs is deplorable and something drastic must be done by the Ghana Education Service now in order to reverse this unpleasant situation; and make culture education delivery at the pre-university level more realistic, meaningful and rewarding to benefit the country.
It is a fact that subsequent directors of the culture unit of the Ghana EducationService had been finding it extremely difficult if not impossible, to efficientlyadminister and run the unit as a result of the perennial problems facing the unit.Infrastructure and logistics are virtually non-existent, let alone the availability of adequate funds to make things move smoothly and easily to achieve ends of various cultural programmes that the unit can initiate and implementto promote and develop the Ghanaian culture.
Based on my critical observation as one who had had the experience of working in the culture unit of the Ghana Education Service as an assistant director and co-ordinator of drama education in the country, this unit needs drastic transformation to put it in the right track for quality and efficient delivery to meet its mandated objectives. The continued existence of thisall importance unit of the Ghana Education Service must be critically reappraised now; and given proper attention that it deserves asfar as the promotion and development of the Ghanaian culture are concerned; or else it ceases to exist to save the tax payers’ money, which can be used in other areas of socio-economic endeavours in the development agenda of the country.
In my opinion, the meagre funding that the unit had hitherto been receiving from the Ghana Education Service’s annual budget is a waste since it practically contributes nothing to promote and develop the Ghanaian culture effectively at the pre-university level of education in the country.
I have taken this critical stand due to my unpleasant experience in working in this unit, which led to my sudden resignation from the Ghana Education Service to undertake lecturing at the University of Education, Winneba, and other tertiary institutions in the country.
However, as a concerned citizen, who has the interest of the country at heart as far as the education of the Ghanaian culture is concerned for a realistic and meaningful progress and development of the country, I will like to make the following suggestions for the transformation of the culture unit of the Ghana Education Service for a better performance and positive results achievement to benefit the country in her development agenda.
In the context of the transformation of the culture unit, the first step to be taken urgently now is to upgrade the culture unit to a division status; and give it priority attention as the other divisions of the Service and furthermore, give it a face-lifting environment in terms of office equipment and facilities as pertains in the other divisions of the Service.
The next step to take is to appoint a highly competent director the person who will be appointed to head the culture unit must have deep interest in culture and also have the zeal and capacity to promote and develop the Ghanaian culture pragmatically and effectively to meet the needs of the Ghanaian youth at the pre-university level of education.
The next step to follow is to appoint subordinate staff who are all well qualified in the area of culture and have the interest , zeal and the capacity to promote and develop the Ghanaian culture among the youth at the pre-university level.
Furthermore, the Ghana Education Service must make available special incentives and motivation packages to the rank and file of the culture division in order to motivate and boost their morale to work very hard to achieve positive results.
The last step to take but not the least in the transformation exercise, is to ensure that adequate funds are always available to support various viable programmes of culture that will be initiated and undertaken by the culture division. This will surely guarantee hard work, commitment and sacrifice from the director and his staff. And this situation will greatly fuel and ginger them to work very hard to meet expectation and the set down objectives of the division.
It must be well noted that the culture of a nation is the bedrock and panacea for her economic growth, development and prosperity since time immemorial as far back as the classical era of ancient Greece up to the present era of the modern world. For instance, the U.S and China today are great powers in terms of wealth, development and prosperity as aresult of their highly developed cultures. The same reason can also be attributed to the other great and prosperous nations in our modern world today.
In concise terms, culture can be defined as the typical character, life style and behavior of a group of people in a particular geographical area on earth. In fact, everything that a group of people do for their survival and livelihood becomes their culture. Thus, for a group of people to progress and advance in knowledge, enlightment and achieve economic growth, development and prosperity, invariably depends on their culture that they have envolved and developed for themselves.
Ghana must become more serious and pay special attention to the promotion and development of her culture, so that she can experience optimum eonomic growth, development and prosperity in the shortest possible of time from now in the present 21st century.
The Ghana Education Service has been mandated to promote and develop the Ghanaian culture at the pre-university level; and this is why as an important government organization, it must be up and doing to contribute realistically and meaningfully to the development agenda of the country.
The Ghana Education Service has not been found wanting in the other areas of education delivery in the country; so it must wake up now in the area of culture education because as pointed out in the foregoing, culture is the pivot and the sine quanon for the development of countries in the past, present and in the future, for that matter.
In the implementation of the various programmes that the culture division will develop, it must ensure that it follows them up with comprehensive report in the form of analysis, evaluation and recommendations for the way forward in the future. These reports must be submitted annually to the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service for scrutiny, study and action by way of implementation.
The era in which different programmes and activities of culture such as the annual culture festivals in the various regions of Ghana were undertaken by the culture unit without supporting them with any comprehensive post mortem reports and recommendations for implementation must come to a halt immediately, so that the culture division will become more dynamic, resourceful and effective to enable it to achieve its noble mandated objective to benefit the country.
Every culture is dynamic but not stagnant; and that is why the culture division must be seen to be working very hard to the letter in order to fulfill its mandated objectives.
Again, based on my experience at the culture unit of the Ghana Education Service, I assert categorically that if the Ghana Education Service is really serious and concerned with a realistic and meaningful development of the Ghanaian culture, it must immediately turn the present unit of culture into a division status; and follow this up with the other suggestions that I have made in this article.
The Ghanaian culture is highly crucial in the developmental agenda of the country at the moment; and the Ghana Education Service must realize this stark truth, and act accordingly in the interest of Ghana. The Ghanaian culture can no longer be thrown to the dogs to jeopardise the development of the country/
In conclusion, I am optimistic; and hence forth; wish the Ghana Education Service well in its handling of the priceless and invaluable Ghanaian culture to benefit Ghana realistically and meaningful; for culture, is the sine qua non for any realistic and meaningful development anywhere in the modern world today.
A haircut I had about a week ago didn’t go down well with many. Someone quite close to my heart saw it, examined it critically and felt dizzy.
“What’s this?” she proceeded to ask me.
“An international hairdo,” I replied.
She was disgusted, in fact disappointed. The problem with the haircut is that the style is neither Punk, Tokyo Joe nor Show Your Back. If anything, it is a combination of all—and I liked it, for a change.
It was when I bounded downtown that someone called me and enquired whether I was no longer a journalist. He said I looked like a well-fed Warrant Officer.
“Class One or Class Two?” I asked.
Another studied my head as if he was studying physical geography and pronounced that I looked like a boxer who can throw dangerous punches. Still, someone was of the opinion that the haircut didn’t quite fit me, but admitted that I looked like a prosperous merchant.
Commendation
I remember some three months ago, I had a haircut that made two girls fall in love with me. In spite of the fact that the barber was not a graduate, the cut was such that they couldn’t help admiring it. One of them actually ‘checked out’ the style and commended the barber.
The other was more bent on the ‘love matter’ but I was too busy to give her any attention. LOVE!
I was reminded of this when I viewed a premier showing of the latest Sikaman film titled THE POWER OF LOVE. The film kept me thinking. Some of us have long forgotten about what it is like to be head-over-heels in love. When we were students, we had such experiences because there was nothing doing anyway.
We were either learning how stylishly to smoke ‘jot’ or how romantically to fall in love. Anyhow, I was intrigued by this latest movie because of the way love unlimited was portrayed on screen. It took my memory back many years to relive those youthful days when we felt we’d really die if jilted by our lovers.
The storyline of THE POWER OF LOVE is really an exciting one. The combination of love, treachery and intrigue made me feast my eyes intently on the screen, unbelieving the extent the force of love can reach.
Ama and Afua are good friends. But when it comes to matters of the heart, they have different tastes; Ama is content with only her boyfriend (a student) and Afua samples the bigwigs around town. Afua, not satisfied with the shots in town, wants Ama’s boyfriend Joe in addition. She lies to Joe that Ama has often been picked by a man on four-wheels, whereupon Joe dismisses Ama and takes on Afua.
Ama doesn’t realise that it is her best friend Afua who is destroying her relationship with Joe until she catches her having sex with him. She collapses and goes out of her mind from the broken heart. But before then, she had been made pregnant by Joe.
Having escaped from a psychiatric hospital, she roams town murmuring Joe’s name. Heavily pregnant now, she espies Joe boarding a mini bus and runs towards him. Joe, seeing her approaching, quickly disembarks and takes off.
Ama pursues him furiously, and he runs to his home where he finds his bosom friend Frank making love to Afua. He immediately realises the treachery of Afua who instigated him to leave Ama.
He intends leaving the home in disgust and meets mad Ama at the door and embraces her despite her madness. Instantly, she regains her sanity.
Love indeed heals the wounds of the mind and it is the greatest positive force in the world. Incidentally, the greatest negative force is hatred.
Greatest force
Now coming to talk about love, I reiterate it is the greatest force imaginable. That is why a man will butcher his rival to death if he catches him climbing his wife without asking permission; and a woman will go mad if jilted.
It is also for this reason that a young boy who is scared stiff of cemeteries and under normal circumstances would not dare go near one, will this time walk boldly through a cemetery at midnight if that is the only way to his lover’s abode.
The Bible describes love for our neighbours as the surest way to heaven: Love thy neighbour as thyself.
Unfortunately, what Ghanaians are more interested and skilful in is loving the opposite sex. Romance under the cover of darkness is what we understand love to be all about. When it comes to loving our fellow human beings, we are found wanting.
People hate others just because they are of another tribe and do not speak the same native language. Too much grudge-bearing that does not augur well for national development.
War in Liberia, carnage in Rwanda are the results of the absence of love for one’s fellow being. If everybody could express a little bit of love for his fellow being irrespective of tribe, race, politics or religion, Sikaman—and indeed, the world—will be a more habitable place.
This article was first published on Saturday, October 29, 1994
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“Sir,” Ms. Odame said when David Asante answered the call, “my name is Victoria Odame. I’m a teacher at Research School in Koforidua. I would like to come and see you concerning a student called Sarah.”
“Okay, madam. I would be very glad to meet you. How can I make your trip easier?”
“I was going to join a bus to Accra.”
“Here’s what we will do. Take a taxi and ask them to bring you to Accra. I will speak to the driver, give him the directions, and pay him when you get here.”
The taxi stopped in front of the house. The gate opened, and the driver moved to the long driveway and stopped.
“What a beautiful house,” he said.
David and Adoma came out to meet them. Adoma paid the driver as David and Sarah stared at each other.
“Please come in and sit down,” Adoma invited. She served them water.
“You are welcome,” Adoma continued. “We have been waiting anxiously since you called this morning. So please, let’s hear you.”
Before she could open her mouth, Sarah rose, moved to David, hugged him, and sat on his lap. They both broke into tears. Adoma and Ms. Odame also broke into tears.
“Sorry, madam,” David said. “This whole episode has been a very difficult one. But let’s do the proper thing. Let’s hear you first, and I will also speak. I’m sure we need to answer some questions immediately.”
“Okay, sir. I have been taking an interest in Sarah because, although she’s brilliant academically, she seemed to be troubled. Following my discussions with her and some whispers I had been hearing, I went to Aboso Senior High School and spoke to your former colleague, Mr. Hanson. He told me that you were an exemplary teacher who was loved by all, and he also told me about the unfortunate events that caused you to leave for Germany. So I returned to Koforidua with the view to finding the appropriate means of helping to solve this problem.”
“Great. Ms. Odame, I have to thank you for finally helping us to solve this problem. Now, let me state the facts. This is what happened.
“Gladys and I met and got married whilst we were both teachers in the school. Some months into our marriage, she told me that she needed to spend some days with her parents, and I agreed.
“It turned out that she was actually spending time in a hotel with her ex-boyfriend, Simon. This happened again after Sarah was born. I got wind of this and told her that I was no longer interested in the marriage.
“I started preparing to travel to Germany. She pleaded for forgiveness, but I stood my ground. Then she told me that she would punish me for rejecting her.
“She came out later to say that Sarah was not my child, but Simon’s. She went and hid her somewhere, obviously expecting that I would fight to take my child. I was actually going to do that, but my parents advised me that it was almost impossible to win such a fight.
“They advised that, difficult as it sounded, I should leave the child with her because she would come back to me eventually. I have absolutely no problem taking care of you, Sarah. I am taking care of quite a number of kids who are not mine. So that is what happened. My hands were tied. I have been trying to find out how you are doing.
“I kept hearing that you were doing well at school. I also heard that Gladys and her husband were having problems, but I kept hoping that my daughter would at least be okay till it was possible for me to go for her.”
“Sarah, now you have met your dad. You will be free to—”
“I’m not going anywhere!” she declared as she held on to him.
“You don’t have to worry about that, Sarah,” Adoma said. “We have been looking forward to the day you come home. This is your home. Now, you have to meet your siblings.” She called Abrefi and Adaawa.
“Girls, we told you that you have a sister who would join us anytime. Now here she is.”
“Sarah?” Abrefi asked.
“Yes,” Adoma replied. The girls hugged her and took her away.
“Now,” David said, “I think it is time to call Madam Gladys.” He dialed the number.
“My name is David Asante. I’m here in my house with my daughter Sarah. I hear you have told her all sorts of crazy stories about me. I could make life very difficult for you, but I won’t.
“You are your own worst enemy. I don’t think you should be expecting her anytime soon. What do you say?”
Gladys stayed silent for over a minute, then cut the line.
“Food is ready,” Adoma announced. “Everybody, please come to the table.”
Sarah chatted excitedly with her siblings as Adoma and David spoke with Ms. Odame. She kept staring at her father.
“Now, Ms. Odame, after you have brought such joy into our home, should we allow you to go back to Koforidua today, or should we wait till we are ready to release you? I could call your husband and ask permission.
“And please don’t tell me you didn’t bring anything for an overnight stay. There are several supermarkets around here. We can fix that problem quickly.”
“I will beg you to release me. Now that I have been so warmly welcomed here, I already feel part of this home. Koforidua is not that far away, so I will visit often.”
“Well, let’s see what the kids have to say. Ladies, shall I release Ms. Odame to go back to Koforidua?”
“No!” they shouted, and all broke into laughter.
“Ms. Odame, I will have mercy on you. But we are going to do something to make it easy for you to visit us. My wife wants to show you something. Please follow her.”
Adoma led her to the driveway as the others followed. They stopped in front of the car.
“This is a Toyota Corolla 1600. It is very reliable and good on petrol consumption. We are giving this to you in appreciation of your help in getting our daughter back to us.
“And here in this envelope is a little contribution to help you with maintenance. And here in this other envelope is a gift to help with your children’s school fees.”
As she stood, stunned, and stared from the car to the envelopes, David put his hand around his family.
“Let’s leave her to take a look at her car. Ms. Odame, one of my drivers will drive you to Koforidua and leave your car with you. We are waiting inside.”
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