Hardly anybody in authority in Ghana these days opens his mouth without expressing the need to change the educational system and lamenting the damage that had been done to the country by the up to December 31 - bankrupt educational system.
The Chairman of the PNDC, Flt-Lt Rawlings has himself identified the teaching profession as the one that had the greatest and most difficult task in "furthering the aims of the revolution", because they have the job of grooming the character of the pupils to grow up untainted by the bankrupt system.
Since the teachers who face this daunting task are themselves products of this same bankrupt system and have by and large been the instruments of perpetuating this system, Chairman Rawlings himself decided to take matters into his own hands and remedy the situation.
He therefore has embarked upon the task of educating or is it re-educating? - the teachers. By means of diagrams which he drew on the teachers' black- board, the Chairman explained, in con- crete terms, the self-reliance concept and its importance (Ghanaian Times, October 12, 1982) and told a roomful of Ghanaian teachers that the educational structure was designed in such a way that "we are taught to serve some- body's needs, and not ours". The Chairman then made the very profound observation that man, by nature was born to be creative and adventurous but "we, as a people, have failed to realize this. We have lacked the ability to question and analyse situations..........
Obviously the irony of the situation has not struck him and his colleagues that they are all products of this same bankrupt system and yet, they alone, have somehow miraculously escaped the damage it has wreaked on the rest of us who went through this educational system with them.
Genius
All the education that the Flight- Lieutenant has had, has been in Ghana. His special adviser, Captain Kodjo Tsikata is a product of Achimota School and Sandhurst - that bastion of re- actionary dogmatism. The list is endless. Is the suggestion that these people are such geniuses that they went through such a system and emerged unscathed, and are still capable of being adventurous and possess analytical minds? What is it that sets these people apart that their minds have remained sound when every- body else has been adjudged by them to be in need of re-orientation? Could it be this total dissatisfaction with the Ghana Educational system that has led to the decision to send Ghanaian school children to Cuba to be educated?These children aged between 13 and 16 are supposed to continue their secondary education and receive technical, polytechnic and university education. They will be taught technical, scientific and educational subjects by Cuban teachers while some Ghanaian teachers accompanying them will teach English, Geography and History.
Does this action mean that the authorities in Ghana have now decided that Cuba has the educational system that will suit the needs of Ghana? Are these children supposed to come and form the nucleus of the "master race" in Ghana that will understand the re- volution and carry on the ideas of those currently in possession of all wisdom in Ghana?
Since the universities in Ghana re- main closed and their very existence is now being questioned, should it be understood that University education is okay for Ghanaian children for as long as it is undertaken in Cuba?
The children going to Cuba are said to have been selected from the children of farmers, miners, police, Armed Forces, Fishermen and labourers through the regional and district wings of the National Defence Committees, the National Youth Organising Commission and the Ghana Cuba Friendship Society.
What should the children of those Ghanaians who do not fall into any of these categories do? Will they continue to endure the bankrupt system pre- vailing in the country or go without at all?
For, now that the Universities appear doomed to remain closed obviously be- cause Flt-Lt Rawlings cannot decide if they are of any use to the society, and since he is so displeased with the per- formance of the lower schools also, the day must not be far behind when the secondary and Primary schools will also be closed.
Debate
If at this time of Ghana's life, the PNDC is now calling for DEBATE on the very existence and role, of the Universities, it is obvious that the authorities are almost half a century behind popular thinking. The Sir Arko Korsah report of 40 years ago which led to the establishment of the University of Ghana in the first place is still available and not many things have changed in Ghana's circumstances since then.It is quite clear that the call for a debate is a ruse aimed at putting off the re-opening of the Universities.
Between January and June 1982 when the students of Ghana's Universities were in the fore of the revolution, the PNDC did not imagine that there was anything wrong with the Universities.
Dr Obed Asamoah, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a product of the same system, up until December 31, General- Secretary first of the UNC and then of the merged parties APP, who stood for elections and who, but for the grace of God would have been the Minister of Foreign Affairs and thus inside Nsawam Prison now, when the government was overthrown, went before the UN General Assembly to tell the whole world that the system that we have been trying in Ghana had not worked and we were therefore experimenting with a new system.
One wonders when he saw the light; was it at the Rawlings School of Rapid Results? Or what is one supposed to make of the now sacked K.B. Asante, the former PNDC Secretary of Trade, who stood for elections and holds the dubious all time record of not having a single vote cast for him, supposedly because even he himself and his wife could not vote because they were not registered voters.
Or Secretary Johnny Hansen, or Secretary Ato Austin who were struggling to get power in one way or the other in their political parties. Have all these people been purged of the error of their ways?
What is one to make of Mr Ken Dadzie the new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom appointed by the PNDC, acknowledged by all as an ex- ample of the best that the system has produced. He is credited and quite rightly so, with having played a large part in creating the Ghana diplomatic service, now branded bankrupt by the PNDC. One cannot help but wonder whether His Excellency has also renounced all his life's work now to qualify to be the spokesman for the regime.
The Education Secretary herself Ms. Ama Ata Aidoo, is a product of this system and she apparently must so detest what she has turned out to be that she is determined that no future Ghanaian child should turn out to be like her, thus she must dismantle the system that made her.
But then it is not just the future generations and those that have already gone through it that have been deemed to be at risk, even those that have not been to the classrooms (which considered lucky escapes in the circumstance) have somehow also got contaminated. Thus for a long time, the now disgraced PNDC members, Aloga Akata-Pore, Chris Atim and Kwasi Adu of June 4 Movement went around the country "educating the rural folk on the aims of the revolution" Where on earth did they get all their sainted knowledge from? Sounds suspiciously to me like fascist theory, that there is a group of people set apart, endowed with some supreme knowledge who alone have the answers.
It is a brave man, indeed, who would think and say that people do not question and analyse situations in Ghana. Try going into any village (and leave the guns behind) and tell the people you have brought some new idea to them and just hear them. They might not teach cadets at the Military Academy or at Sandhurst, to question and analyse, but under the big tree in the village, at the naming ceremony of a child, at the meeting to plan the funeral of a deceased person in the village, a lot of questioning and analysis takes place.
And people are seeing through the charade Mr B.J. Moore, Acting Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Local Government Workers Union is reported to have urged the government to train all workers to handle guns "so as to make sure that not only political power is in the hands of the people but also the power of the gun". The acting Chairman then explained that political power in the hands of the people will be meaningless without it being buttressed effectively by guns.
Now, that is a man with political sagacity. He knows that late President Nkrumah got it wrong. It is not a question of seeking first the political kingdom and all other things falling into place. In the Ghanaian context at least, it is a question of seeking first the power of the gun, then you become all things to all people.
