Lecturer Weeps for Basic Schools

Dr. Kwadwo Tutu is not happy with the standards of basic education in the public sector.

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday September 21, 2011.
A SENIOR lecturer at the University of Ghana Dr. Kwadwo Tutu has lamented the lack of attention given to public basic schools in the country saying “we are setting a very dangerous precedent for the country’s future development.”

“Basic education has become the preserve of the rich, the influential and the privileged. Every parent is abandoning public basic schools for private education for their children. The majority of pupils in public schools continue to perform abysmally and nobody seems to care…what future are we building for this country?” he said.

Dr. Tutu, a lecturer at the Economics Department of the university, was addressing a news conference in Accra on recently on the topic ‘The Gradual but persistent descent of Ghana into catastrophe: The privatization of basic education in Ghana.”

He said “I am here as a concerned Ghanaian to express my dismay and fears about a dangerous process that has been going on for a long time but now with intensity. This dangerous outcome faces us starkly in the face but like the proverbial ostrich, Ghanaians behave as if nothing is happening. This is the consistent destruction of basic public schools and the mushrooming of private preparatory schools at the basic level.”

He noted that the quality of education at public basic schools continue to deteriorate at a fast speed adding “I am sure most of you are aware of several rural and some semi-urban schools scoring zero percent in the recent BECE results. I heard on the radio two days ago that at Agona East, only one student had aggregate 15. All the other schools scored zero percent. How can students go through 9 years of schooling and several schools score zero percent? These are the results from public schools. While this is happening at the public schools, the private schools are scoring 100 percent.”

He explained that in the past, 90 percent of university students came from public schools but currently about 80 percent of university students come from private schools, saying “the basic reason is that the quality of students from public schools is so bad that about 70 percent of JSS graduates cannot read or write. Therefore, they cannot pass to SSS and then to tertiary levels.”

Dr. Tutu said the idea of making basic education end at the SSS level brings about the issue of quality at the SSS level saying, “the results this year for those who went through four years of SSS was excellent. University of Ghana for instance had an admission cut-off point of aggregate 14. This is unprecedented. Does this nation not want such quality education for its children?”

“If four years will give good quality education, why are we politicizing it? If the reason is resources, let us look for resources because the alternative of ignorance and illiteracy will not take the country anywhere, and in the long run will be many times more expensive than the resources that would have been used to educate them. Let us open the debate on the number of years of our SSS level with sober minds and stop the politics.”

He said he was in full support of Nana Akufo-Addo's plan of making every child go to SSS saying “in fact, basic education should terminate at the SSS level. Even if we cannot get all children going to SSS now, we should aim within 4 years to have 60 percent of children progressing to that level. Even if we run budget deficits to finance such a venture, it will be repaid several times over because Ghana will get back about 40 percent additional scarce productive human resources that would have been wasted.”

Dr. Tutu said what was worsening the plight of these underprivileged schools was the introduction of computer literacy as a core course at the BECE level asking “is computer literacy the solution to students not being able to read, write and do basic math and science?”

He said government’s plans to introduce computers to basic schools are “a complete waste of resources,” adding “how can anyone solve illiteracy problems with a supply of computers? The government would be causing financial loss to the state if it goes ahead with its plans.”

“The reason why this is a financial loss is that these students who cannot read or write don't need computers because they cannot use them. They need what will make them literate, effective teaching and supervision, books and libraries including mobile community libraries. The government should channel these computer resources into these areas not into computers.

Any good educationist will tell you that the best way for a child to be a good student in all other subjects is for him or her to develop the habit of reading at the primary level. If this habit is not developed at those levels, forget it. It is finished. This is why many of our university graduates cannot write good English and position papers.”

Dr. Tutu said ICT will facilitate economic development and research but may not be able to solve all the country’s problems noting “let me emphasize from the outset that the only way to liberate people from poverty, ignorance, disease and superstition is to make them literate.”