{"id":65897,"date":"2014-11-16T14:53:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T14:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=65897"},"modified":"2014-11-17T16:29:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:29:23","slug":"ghanas-educational-system-a-lesson-from-the-striking-workforce-ibrahim-anyars-imoro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/11\/ghanas-educational-system-a-lesson-from-the-striking-workforce-ibrahim-anyars-imoro\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s School System: A Lesson from the striking workforce –\u00a0Ibrahim Anyars Imoro"},"content":{"rendered":"

So much for the pretence that as a nation we have eked out a meritorious society. Who can refuse to acknowledge the now palpable two-tier (pardon the \u2018pension funds\u2019 pan) social class structure we have, in Ghana?<\/p>\n

If your child has been attending school lately, then you belong to the confounded group in the \u2018upper\u2019 social class; and if you are among the unfortunate lot battling with work and how to contain idle and hyperactive children, you know where you belong. But must it come to this?<\/p>\n

For most of the noise around government investment in education and schools, what has been the overarching vision? How do we evaluate it?<\/p>\n

Or has our banal attitude to research got something to do with the failures that beckon with the slightest test to the system? We definitely need to pause and reflect!<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, while majority of Ghanaian children could boast of being public school educated scholars, the trend is changing, and fast.<\/p>\n

Boost in enrolment in private schools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even well-meaning education professionals and practitioners in the public sector and state schools opt for private education of their children. Why? Well, for one reason \u2013 your child may still get to go to school when public and state educational workers strike.<\/p>\n

While this is a moot reason for enrolling in the private, the gradual insidious build-up of a class society, may unavoidably creep up on us with unimaginable consequences.<\/p>\n

The question of an overarching vision in relation to current education policy calls for reflection on our current socio-economic, political and cultural realities to motivate the fashioning out of a school system fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

As an advisory starting point, may be on this occasion we should allow research to lead on the practice, as the application of existing models borrowed wholesale from elsewhere without regard to our context, partly shares the blame in the mess with our education system.<\/p>\n

As a country that boasts of having commonalities with Britain and the English education system, a little digression into recent attempts at steering a new policy direction in England is probably worth a perusal for inspiration.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the Right Honourable Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education (Conservative Party), caused a silent revolution with his vision of \u2018Free Schools\u2019 to raise standards in both the private and public education realms.<\/p>\n

This was borne out of researchand regard for the evidence that suggested the need to level up the attainment gap between state\/local authority controlled schools and private\/independent schools. Positively, by Free Schools (popularised as Academies) he was seeking to deregulate and empower schools and Heads of schools to have the authority over budgets, and by implication the power to hire and fire!<\/p>\n

The talk of a revolution might begin to make some sense at this stage; if you can envision a similar scenario in our current muddled up system.<\/p>\n

In reality, the political undertones to such a policy was to truncate the power of the trade unions (with known affiliation to the opposition Labour Party) from holding parents and schools to ransom; a major fall out from any calls to strike and down tools.<\/p>\n

In sum, the Honourable Secretary of State may have succeeded \u2013 considering the uproar and strikes that greeted the policy \u2013 where others had failed, as the power over budgets and freedom from state and local government controls proved too alluring to resist. So the policy came into being, with many state schools converting to academies: including one that yours truly happened to be a teacher in, at the time. A clear example of research leading practice borne out of visionary leadership.<\/p>\n

What inspiration can we garner from this? Certainly not a call for a wholesale importation of a perceived ready-to-use model; but a painstaking reflective approach to what works for us as a country.<\/p>\n

Missed opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an early childhood specialist, I see lots of missed opportunities in our refusal to allow research and evidence-based practice \u2013 with contextual relevance \u2013 to guide what we do with our children.<\/p>\n

Take the mass enrolment into high fee paying preschools, as an example; where is the contextual evidential basis for such practice? Also, with provision dominated largely by private providers, who caters for the vast majority of children and families who lack the resources, if we assume there are some universal and unequivocal benefits that early education offers.<\/p>\n

Or have we accepted that a creeping social class is acceptable, as these children, the privately and publicly educated belong to the same country and hold similar future citizenry aspirations? Beyond the early years, it is my view that on an education policy fit for purpose, a semblance of \u2018Free Schools\u2019 Policy (one framed out of our national context and not a mimic of the English version) may hold a key to arresting some of the current educational challenges that we face.<\/p>\n

Heightened level of distrust<\/strong><\/p>\n

The current distortionist stances on the pension funds crisis has revealed a heightened level of distrust that could be avoided: for instance, people could still look to a contributed and universal pension benefits on retirement, as well as opt in for a privately or institution-based pension pot (encouraged by various trade unions and groups).<\/p>\n

Knowing our untoward dispositions to governmental control and management of such funds, this could in some wayassuage the present crisis.<\/p>\n

In the Holy Qur\u2019an (Surah Asr \u2013 Chapter of Time \u2013 103:2) \u2018Man is said to be in a state of loss\u2019; a Biblical wisdom suggests equally that \u2018people are destroyed for lack of knowledge\u2019 (Hosea 4:6).<\/p>\n

Just maybe if we had researched a bit more, before we practice, we could garner from collective wisdom that our culture already imbues our society with ways to design a model of education befitting our own; yet fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

Just maybe if we had regard for research, we would realise that there is a real disjunction between policy and practice that earnestly beckons for attention. Just maybe if we had paused to think we could get a sense that by applying more of the same and getting no results desired, we could awaken to other alternatives.<\/p>\n

For a lot of the challenges lamented in the foregoing, one thing is clear: our continuing condescension for research \u2013 even just to \u2018pause and think\u2019 \u2013 and using research as a basis for practice has always been our undoing, in my opinion. On an educational note: Would we ever learn?<\/p>\n

Article Written by Ibrahim Anyars Imoro (Tamale Resident), Doctoral Researcher, University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Email \u2013 ib_anyars@yahoo.co.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So much for the pretence that as a nation we have eked out a meritorious society. Who can refuse to acknowledge the now palpable two-tier (pardon the \u2018pension funds\u2019 pan) social class structure we have, in Ghana? If your child has been attending school lately, then you belong to the confounded group in the \u2018upper\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[8],"yoast_head":"\nGhana\u2019s School System: A Lesson from the striking workforce -\u00a0Ibrahim Anyars Imoro - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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