62 YEARS ON, UNEQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL IN GHANA
One interesting place we visited during our educational tour at the beginning of this year, is the town of Nzulenzu.
‘Nzulenzu’ in the traditional dialect of the inhabitants means the ‘City on Water’. To paint a brief picture of the town to you, the whole town had its respective buildings made of a particular type of wood, seated on a stretch of water. Its touristic features makes it a nice scene to behold and a must visit for all. It’s under the supervision of Ghana Wildlife Society.
Aside these amazing touristic features the town was blessed with, I made one interesting but serious observation about the town. That was their educational system – the central focus of this write up.
For the purpose of this write up, by educational system, I mean the process of teaching and learning in a formal or an officially recognized place (school). Thus, a place where materials provided by government or an individual either print or electronic are made available to an authority (teacher) willing and ready to impart same into a pupil (student) under conditions necessary and conducive for teaching and learning.
Having established the above, I shall proceed to give some facts about the school in Nzulenzu on whose wheels education is carried out in the town.
First, the town of Nzulenzu has just one basic school which begins from class 1 to class 6. It has just 3 teachers of which two are paid by the community themselves (not government nor any of its agencies according the tour guide) because they were employed by the community and the third person is a National Service (NSS) Person.
Again, because the school has few classes, they have to compromise and divide some of the classes among two levels say class 3 and 4 in one room.
To add to the above, the school is blessed with a library stocked with books from some NGOs yet has no Librarian to attend to students who would want a particular book to read or assist with the shelving of books and ensuring of order in the library.
Moreover, the heat in the library is enough disincentive to discourage students from using the library as it’s a bane to spread communicable diseases such as chicken pox among pupils. This clearly defeats the idea of a conducive atmosphere needed for studying.
Another interesting fact that was told us and we witnessed, is that, the control of the pupils is quite problematic especially during break time because of the few teachers that monitor the movement of the students. During break, all the kids go back to their respective homes for lunch and until the teachers go back to their homes to call these kids, they will be there forever.
Today Ghana turns 62 and assuming without admitting that she was a human working in a government sector, she would be on pension by now!
For me, it’s sad how we pride ourselves with the number of years we have been ‘independent’ and don’t pay particular attention to our educational system as a country. Clearly, our political leaders have shown over the years that, they do not have that political will to make our educational system a better one for all irrespective of your location.
In a century where fruits such as apple and blackberries are electronic gadgets…we still have only 3 teachers teaching classes 1 to 6 in a public school in Ghana. This is quite funny and ridiculous.
In an era where the most paid workers are teachers in some countries, it is not the case in Ghana. It’s sad how those teachers would have to rely on the community to be paid and that means until tourists come to the town to donate, those teachers won’t be paid. It also reveals that, GES do not even post teachers to such remote places or the teachers refuse to go. So sad!!
Now I ask myself, “are those school children also, not part of Ghanaians?” “Do those kids not have a share in the National Cake?” “For how long, would we deny our rural folks better opportunities to education in Ghana?”
I am persuaded this gross inequality and denial of good opportunities to be educated do not only exist in Nzulenzu but in many other parts of the country too. “For how long would we loose sight of those communities that bring us revenue through tourism and yet deny them of benefits that are in turn due them?”
This write up is dedicated to Ghana’s 62nd Independence Day and I know it has spoken for many other towns that are going through similar or even worse plights just to acquire knowledge and empower its citizens. It was Malcom X who said that, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
That’s why we have to think about what we do today with our educational system because it can greatly determine what becomes of us tomorrow.
The opportunity for all to be educated should be made available equally and fairly irrespective of your geographical location. The reason is that, the next President might be in that school and same is true for the next Kpakpo Allotey.
