BUILDING CONCENSUS ON ISSUES (JUNE 4, 2009)

THE debate on the form and duration of the country’s educational system continues to engage the attention of many Ghanaians.
During a courtesy call by the executive of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) on President J.E.A. Mills last Tuesday, the union appealed to political parties not to joke with the country’s education, stressing that the student body would resist with considerable force attempts by parties to politicise the current debate on education in the country.
It is, however, refreshing that the President gave the assurance that education should always respond to the exigencies of the situation and not necessarily political expediency.
Coming in the wake of the inconclusive educational forum on the duration of senior high school (SHS), the issues being raised by educationists, the government, as well as parents and students, offer the opportunity for a more dispassionate look at our educational system.
Countries that have made investment in their people are today reaping the fruits of their endeavour. Today, it does not matter the natural resources available to a country if it lacks the requisite human resource to harness them. Even a very precious resource such as oil can turn out to be a curse, as is the case in many oil-rich countries.
It is, therefore, necessary for us to try and insulate the debate on our educational system from politics so that everybody will feel free to offer some viewpoints on the matter.
It is in this vein that the DAILY GRAPHIC agrees with Justice Saeed Kwaku Gyan, a High Court judge, who underscored the need for the country to develop a national educational policy that would be agreed upon by all and systematically implemented between 20 years and 30 years.
“The hullabaloo over the educational reforms over the past decade is definitely worrying. I dare say that for educational policies and their implementation to achieve positive outcomes, they must never become the subject of political brinkmanship and posturing,” he said.
The lack of a sustained policy direction in education can be said to be responsible for the low standards in most of our schools.
The majority of the products of our educational institutions are unable to spearhead the development agenda of the country. Indeed, for more than 52 years Ghana has been saddled with low productivity and underdevelopment.
Perhaps the present debate on the duration of the SHS should provide the platform for the nation to build consensus on our development agenda.
The politicisation of the development process has created the situation whereby, as a people, we continue to grope in the dark, still searching for the formula that can promote development in all fields of our national endeavour.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the way forward to attain a middle-income status depends on a strong educational system that turns out the right calibre of human resource to manage the expected oil boom in Ghana from the second half of 2010.
Although in every multiparty democracy the majority will always have their way while the minority will have their say, in most of the successful democracies and economies political parties have always adopted a non-partisan approach to issues of national concern.
We need to depoliticise the debate on education and other sectors of the economy so that all hands can be on deck to break the back of poverty, disease and squalor.