Letters
Educating Ghana
Dear Sir,It is only a hypocrite or, better still a human ostrich who would refuse to admit that there is something seriously wrong with the educational system in Ghana.
I completely fail to see what Elizabeth Ohene was so mad about in her piece on "Educating Ghana -- The Cuban Way" published in the "Talking Drums" of September 26. She argued that because members of the present government all benefitted (?) from the same educational system which is the "bastion of reactionary dogmatism" they cannot claim to know that there is something wrong and go on to do something about it.
Quite obviously she does not like the idea that Ghanaian children are being sent to Cuba for education, I wonder what she would have said if the children had been sent to America or Britain.
I could see the point in arguing for re-organising the education system in Ghana instead of shipping them out of the country while the majority remain in the colonial educational system which does not reflect on the needs of the country.
In a fast changing world where ideas are constantly being reviewed according to the economic fortunes of countries, particularly, in the Third World hemmed in by East-West ideological struggle, how can Ms. Ohene say that "The Sir Arko Korsah report of 40 years ago which led to the establishment of the University of Ghana" is still a document - a valid blue-print for higher education in Ghana?
Sending children to Cuba may not be the answer but Ghana's educational system needs serious changes.
Yaw Sampson Leyton
Training Of Terrorists?
Dear Editor,The whole move, it seems to me, is aimed at training a group of Ghanaians outside the country to return as fully fledged revolutionaries and hardened experts in guerilla warfare.
If Cuba's vast experience in this department is anything to go by then there is more to the Rawlings regime's motive for Cuban education, than meets the eye.
Emelia Forson High Wycombe
Changes In The Civil Service Must Succeed
I have read with interest the two articles on the Civil Service entitled: "The Civil Service at Cross-roads" under the series - Restructuring of State Institutions published in the second and third issues of the "Talking Drums" and I am at a loss as to what your correspondent was trying to say.The writer dwelt at length on the fact that the Ghana Civil Service is moribund and wrapped up in the shackles of bureaucracy and that its present failings might have emanated from the colonial legacy at the time of independence.
The point was also emphatically made that the corruption in the system is gingered up by a horde of eccentrics, megalomaniacs and "jelly back-boned" top officials who cannot take simple decisions on issues and thereby delay important matters".
So the question is: why does the writer think the restructuring exercise which is an attempt to weed these characters out of the system would not solve the problem?
I was shocked to read in the Talking Drums of September 26, that Ghanaian children are being sent to Cuba for secondary and University education.
I would like to point out that the top civil servants who are going to be affected by the exercise are deliberately putting impediments in the way of the government to frustrate and delay the implementation of the programme.
The writer of that article, I suspect may be a top civil servant who obviously does not like the restructuring. I could feel the sneer and contempt for the involvement of the Workers Defence Committees in the decision making in the various ministries.
It is my contention that if the Civil Service is to rise above its apathy and officialdom which are killing it slowly, then the current exercise must work effectively and it would only happen when the administrative class réalise that it is not against them but in the interest of the whole country.
K. Bentil Surrey
Reconstruction?
Dear Editor,The December 31 putsch of Flt-Lt Rawlings which toppled the democratically elected government of Dr. Hilla Limann was welcomed with some jubilation in Ghana.
When the PNDC took over the government many Ghanaians thought it was timely because they hoped the change would bring about an improvement in their life situations and alleviate the suffering from all sorts of socio-economic deprivation. The question now is: has there been any change?
It is an open secret that the economy which he Rawlings promised to improve is, in fact, now in absolute chaos, tribalism is at its apex; hunger has afflicted almost every Ghanaian, industries are at stand still because there are no inputs. While workers are being laid off some are being kept on the pay-roll for doing nothing apart from worker's defence committee activities which are supposed to be the back-bone of the revolution.
It has been said before and I would repeat it Ghana does not deserve this kind of treatment.
Our resources must be mobilised; our universities must reopen because whether we like it or not we cannot wish away higher education. Ghana has to recapture her past glory.
Kwasi Gveabour, West Germany
