The Vice President of Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, has watered down arguments by the Chief Policy Analyst of the Ghana Institute for Public Policy Options (GIPPO), Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby, who is insisting that depicting the human head as a load carrier is not wrong when it is situated in Ghana’s cultural setting.
Dr. Brobby in his recent piece on the matter chastised those who raised concerns over the content in the textbook; “Natural Science for Primary Schools – Pupil’s Book 1” authored by Albert Joseph Quarm, which portrayed the head as a load carrier.
[contextly_sidebar id=”5kDn6Aoo0FiP0OjiWPYWjAB2uqC1SqIZ”]He stated that “the debate on the function of the head was very much a debate of the middle and upper class Ghana, and also from their own perspectives of what Ghana should be or is striving to be in the Global world of today.”
“Just as I have been lucky enough to have experienced both the traditional and the inspirational, I could relate to both the author’s vigorous defence of his illustration and Kofi Bentil’s more restrictive view of the function of the head. I could do so because of my lucky experience of both, especially the insistence by Achimota School that our culture and traditions were of equal weight to the Whiteman’s vision of modernity. Ironically most of the teachers in Achimota in my day were white people. So here is one case where I believe the function of the head of the ordinary Ghanaian can be two in one; both carrying goods and fermenting great ideas and innovations.,” he added.
But Kofi Bentil, who first brought the issue to the limelight said Dr. Brobby missed the point.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, Mr. Bentil insisted that the issue should not and never be limited to the cultural context but should be argued on the basis of teaching what is right.
“I respectfully disagree with Dr. Wereko Brobby’s position and I think he gets the context of this debate very wrong. We are not talking about the cultural uses of the head or the possible or alternative uses of the head. And I am not saying that the head is not used to carry load, we are talking about teaching children science, biology, teaching children what is the function of the head,” he argued.
“If you are to tell your child the function of the head, will you tell them that the function of the head is for carrying load? He [Wereko Brobby] is talking about cultural relativity and all that, respectfully I think that he’s missed it,” Mr. Bentil insisted.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana