No need to cut sod for new STEM academy, improve the discarded E-Blocks- Dr. Adu-Twum Told

Filasco News January 12, 2022

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Fellow countrymen, we at Educate Africa Institute (EAI) have discovered that GES is implementing the new curriculum for more than two years now without textbooks and other teaching and learning materials in our basic schools. Teachers and pupils need textbooks for comprehensive teaching and learning.

However, the minister of educational affairs has planned to do the usual sod-cutting ceremony with intention of building 21st-century science technology engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academies for the same Ghanaian children who are lacking educational materials in existing schools.

The minister ought to complete and convert the breathing uncompleted E-blocks which are also close to us in our various communities. It’s not wise to waste taxpayers’ money without proper reasoning. It’s not the Mahama project but rather the Ghana project.

Candidly, the new curriculum may turn to be a hallucination if the necessary teaching and learning materials are not in existence.

Now, what role do textbooks play in schools?
Textbooks help teachers and learners in the following regards; They play a vital role in the teaching-learning process. They provide the basic framework within which much of the classroom activities occur and also give every child the best possible opportunities for learning. Textbooks provide organized units of work. A textbook gives all the lessons one needs to cover in detail.

Good textbooks are excellent teaching aids. They’re a resource of information for both teachers and students. Ref: google, 25 Jan 2007 and 28 Aug 2013.

Some challenges uncovered in our schools:

1. Lack of Teaching and Learning Materials:
Sadly, ‘Ama Ghana’ is 64 years old but most schools in Ghana lack teaching and learning materials(audio/visual) and a serene environment that is supposed to enhance effective teaching and learning.
Many schools don’t have access to the internet and computers but they are learning Information and Communication Technology.

2. Lack of Infrastructure:
There are still some schools under trees and in dilapidated structures.
Many schools also lack furniture. At Huhunya in the Eastern Region Yilo Krobo Municipality. Teachers and School children are found in a death trap classroom.
And, over 7,000 pupils lack access to furniture in the Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri district. Even, on the 18th March 2021, CHASS lamented over the lack of furniture when first-year SHS students were reporting to school.

3. The Teachers who are the pivot in terms of education are still crying for better conditions of service. Psychologically, they are not morally motivated to deliver very well in the classrooms. They need better treatment.

OPINION.
Government must provide all educational needs to ensure quality education.
Besides, The concentration should not be on those in the cities and towns alone. Because, at the end of the day, those in both the city schools and villages are going to write the same exams.

On a more serious note, our culture as a country is weighty and we must not compromise. We need not be in haste to implement any educational policy that may not stand the test of time.

“be a citizen, not a spectator”– H.E Nana Addo Dankwa [07/01/2017 ]