Features
Role of parents in education
In any country the education system cannot be successful if parents of the children in school do not play their part as expected of them. This is very true wherever we find ourselves in any part of the world.
A lot depends on the policy makers but policy makers alone will not be able to roll out successful policies in education. For such policies to succeed, we need to ensure that all hands are put on deck to help the system to succeed.
Without this it will be difficult for policy makers to succeed no matter their good intentions. One of the major players in the educational sector is parents. It is parents who give birth to children to go to school. Whatever the policy makers are able to come up with must, therefore, be embraced and supported by parents so that the educational programme can be implemented as expected. Without this it will be difficult for any educational system to succeed.
One role played by parents is the payment of fees as well as preparing or grooming the children to push them into schools at various levels. The various levels in this case are kindergarten or preschool, primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
PRE-SCHOOL LEVEL
At the pre-school level parents are expected to pay attention to the young children and get the necessary educational inputs to assist them to learn and be able to accommodate or assimilate what teachers teach them in the classroom. This explains why parents at this level must be prepared to purchase learning aids to help the children in the acquisition of knowledge.
At the primary school, similar assistance will be needed to groom their children into effective young scholars. Such a method continues at the secondary school level until the children get to the tertiary level. Support from parents at this time will, therefore, be very necessary since without such support teachers alone cannot deliver.
When children are supported by parents in this way, they grow up to become good scholars even at the young age and so as they get ready to enter the tertiary level it will be seen that a strong foundation has already been laid for such young scholars to make it possible for them to accumulate more sophisticated knowledge as they prepare to get to the tertiary level.
The tertiary level is a more complex area but if the children, young as they are, get the needed foundation they will be able to cope with the body of knowledge that they have to learn to enable them become complete scholars. If this is done it means that parents would have been able to contribute their portion as expected.
FREE EDUCATION
In Ghana today, the government of the day has come up with free education system at the secondary level. What this means is that parents are not expected to pay school fees for their children, whether at the vocational, technical or at the normal secondary school level. This is good and must be continued not only for the present generation but for our future generation as well.
There are many people who would have become educated if such a free education system had been introduced during their time. The present generation is, therefore, very fortunate to have come under a government that has introduced this free system of education. Poverty in Africa is generally high so African governments need to work efficiently to generate more money and introduce free education system to the people.
ADVANTAGES
The advantage of the free education system is that it reduces the burden of care on parents and enables them to free some of their resources to cater for other needs of members of their family. In addition, the free education system helps present and potential children to develop their talents and become very useful citizens in society. Again, it helps to reduce armed robbery and other social vices that would have occurred had there not been the free education system.
This explains why all over the world countries are praising Ghana for a good policy such as the free education system. The government is not just introducing free education system but encouraging students to also go in for vocational and/or technical education. The development of vocational and technical skills will help the young scholars to become self-employed instead of depending on government for employment.
SELF-EMPLOYMENT
This is important because masons, technicians, painters, designers and all kinds of artisans working in the public sector as well as in the private sector can become self-employed. This is the kind of lifestyle we need to encourage in this country. Many countries in the world have pursued this agenda and enjoying the benefits. There may be employment but the rate becomes reasonably lower compared with what would have been the case if such a system had not been put in place.
In all this, parents are still expected to play their role. They usually do this by encouraging their children to understand the policies in education and guide them to achieve their ambitions. Without such guidance and assistance from parents, it may be difficult for government alone to do this.
The success of the educational system in any country, therefore, does not depend only on government alone but parents as well. Indeed, other stakeholders such as scholarship organisations and churches and many others are all expected to play the role that are relevant to the educational policy. In addition, they are expected to dialogue with government on what can be done to improve the system.
GOOD INTENTIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS
What is to be done to improve the system can come from parents and other stakeholders but it must come from people with genuine and good intentions as stakeholders. If we embrace good government policies with our hearts and play the role expected of us, we will be able to achieve what is good for the country thereby bring improvement to every person. This is what all stakeholders must bear in mind as they offer any suggestions to policy makers to enable them have the peace to drive the development agenda as far as the educational sector is concerned.
Thus, the success of the educational sector is crucial for the development of the nation and this explains why all stakeholders must do all they can to support government to drive the country forward.
This is a task that we cannot run away from so each one of us, that is, the stakeholders, namely, government, teachers, students and, indeed, everybody should endear themselves to playing the role expected of them and helping to improve the system not only for the good of the country but also to the glory of God.
Contact email/whatsApp address of author:
Pradmat2013@gmail.com(0553318911)
By Dr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
Features
The West African Samba dance
I was in sixth form! Precisely, I was in lower sixth, bubbling with enthusiasm for life. Incidentally, I wasn’t particularly a good dancer but liked watching others dance. When my pal Billy (Butter) did the ‘old man boogie,’ dance, he did so with passion, with contortions and distortions of the human frame. He often needed artificial respiration after a good dance.
Old man Boogie was the dance form adopted at the time. The more you danced like a bony and fragile old man, the more you got applauded. It was fashionable at the time to go to disco with a walking stick to simulate an 80-year-old boogeyman.
On the disco dance floor, everyone was crumbling over and if you didn’t know what was in vogue at the time, you’d be tempted to order an ambulance to cart the entire gang of dancers to the nearest hospital to check their sugar levels. No doubt, you were likely to mistake for old diabetics lapsing into coma on the dance floor.
The Old man Boogie did not last very long. Soon it was replaced with ‘dog’. The dancer was expected to have the men mentality of a dog, and that included baring teeth and ‘pissing’ with one leg raised. When you saw Korkorti on the floor, you thought he was directing traffic with his left leg.
FRENZY
The ‘dog’ gave way to ‘cat’, a frightening choreographic innovation that put the ladies to flight. If dog produced vampires, cat engendered tigers on stage, complete with claws to show for it. The ladies were not brave enough to encounter large human cats in a frenzy, boogeying to funk. They simply fled!
Finally ‘horse’ arrived on the dance floor and you could see Ghanaians galloping with care-less abandon. What saved the situation was the advent of break-dance which shortly superseded the era of freestyling captured in the musical movie “The Music Machine’, starring Gerry Sundquist and Pati Boulaye, a Nigerian performer.
Break-dance brought home an exciting dance variety with equally exciting medical problems. Youngsters began spinning on their heads and broke their necks. They were put in collar and never tried it again.
All the above mentioned dance forms were amply exhibited last Saturday when the Black Stars went on a demolition exercise in Cape Verde.
The 4-0 hammering reflected the level of determination of the Stars to get to Germany in 2006 to showcase samba made in Sikaman.
Soon after the victory, ECG went on ‘strike.’ The nation was plunged into darkness. I heard someone say the power off was deliberate to tone down the celebration, lest people drunk themselves to death. I wondered whether anyone needed electric power to drink himself to death. The lights came on at last.
I quickly drove through parts of Tema. Celebrations were not mass, but pockets of celebrants amply typified the general mood.
CARNIVAL
A group of about eight youngsters apparently charged beyond measure, with akpeteshie running through their veins and arteries, organised a mini-carnival from Site 14 and took to the streets. “God bless our home-land Ghana… they sang the Black Stars cheer song, while hopping like delighted kangaroos. Others were dancing like cats, others like horses.
The beer bars in Tema overflowed with booze. Huge loudspeakers were mounted at Emefa Bar, Site 14, to begin a night of music, booze and chops. Khebab stands smoked freely as sausages and suya were dished out hot, charcoal-grilled.
My wife had gone to Lome, Togo for the weekend with the kids. And what she saw marvelled her. The Togolese national team hitherto known for its disastrous performances suddenly came alive and surprised their own selves. In the final qualifying game, they came back twice to beat Congo in a spectacular display of skills and artistry.
The rain was pouring in sheets in Lome but the celebrants hit the streets in carnival fashion. My little daughter joined them in the rain. When I heard it, I was angry. Why allow the little girl to join in the fanfare?
My wife explained that the situation was so spontaneous that everybody was overwhelmed. Every kid was on the street dancing in the carnival, so why not my little girl? Nobody could stop her. It would have been a sin to stop her. The young and the old were dancing. Old men and women with walking sticks limped to the streets and lock to boogie, the Togolese style.
For me, the exciting aspect of it all is that West African football has come of age. If Nigeria had qualified it would have been a West African affair. Even without Nigeria, it is. Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire are going to play in Germany in 2006. It is a new beginning for West Africa.
PRESTIGE
Egypt, Senegal, Zaire, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Morocco have participated in the World Cup but did not shine. Other nations must slug it out there, because it is time an African country won the prestigious World Cup.
If African countries have won in the Olympics and the Junior World Cup tournaments, there should be no reason why they cannot make a mark in the seniors. They only have to shed the inferiority complex bothering some of the teams. Africa must shine!
Now, some Nigerians are saying Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire will be the whip-ping boys at the World Cup. I’ll advise those Nigerians to cry their own cry.
This article was first published on Saturday, October 15, 2005
Features
Legacy is important in life
The Bible which is usually referred to as the good book, says that good name is better than riches according to Proverbs 22:1. Our generation has turned this sound, Godly advice upside down and has put the love for riches first before good name.
Instead of making the right choices, we are all in a mad rush for money, fame and selfish ambitions. Morality is far from our minds and comes nowhere near the top of our list of priorities.
The first thing most people think of, when given a position as a leader, especially in government, is to look for opportunities to make money. It is a worrying trend in our society that should not be encouraged at all. Gradually our society is placing value on riches than integrity.
Time tested values that have characterised activities of churches are even being compromised to the extent that, leadership roles in churches, are being given to people, based on wealth. No wonder, scandals are manifesting in various churches.
Every person has the freedom of choice. You can decide to choose good or choose evil; it is in your power so to choose. However, what we should all realise is that, choices have consequences.
Decision making is all about choices. If you make the right choice as a leader, your name could be forever etched in gold and your descendants, shall forever benefit from your good choices.
Lee Kuan Yew, said that he had the option of being selfish and making himself and his family rich or to seek the welfare of the nation but he chose the latter because that was the right thing to do.
Today, his name has been etched in gold in Singapore forever. His descendants are revered simply because of what their father and grandfather and great grandfather, did for the nation of Singapore. He left a legacy, a legacy of selflessness, a legacy of patriotism, a legacy of honesty and integrity and finally a legacy of leadership.
I listened to a story about Peduase Lodge. Apparently, it was a gift to Dr Kwame Nkrumah out of love and appreciation by an Akuapim woman, for him to build his private residence. Dr Nkrumah not being selfish but full of patriotism, decided to use it as official residence like Camp David in the US.
He is widely acknowledged also as incorruptible and this has endeared him to the hearts of many Ghanaians although there were some governance issues like the PDA, which somehow dented his otherwise excellent legacy.
Whenever his name is mentioned, his legacy is remembered and wonderful things are said about him. Such legacies, buy favour for his descendants, which in the case of Dr Nkrumah, led to people voting for his daughter to be elected as Member of Parliament for the 5th Parliament under the 4th Republic.
Recently, the passing of a prominent chief in the Asante Region, was announced. This chief has been acknowledged as one of the chiefs in the country, who have banned Galamsey in their area of jurisdiction.
Given the national outcry against illegal mining as a result of the devastating consequences to our environment and related health problems, this fantastic legacy, will go a long way to create favour for his children wherever they find themselves in this country.
Compared this to the son of a notorious armed robber seeking favour for say admission to an SHS. I guarantee you, the moment you mention your name and confirm that you are the son of Ataa…, the legacy of your father will immediately start working against you.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
