Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, has strongly disputed assertions that public schools in Ghana are producing students who are unfit for emerging trends on the job market.
He said the country’s well tested educational system has and continues to make its products globally competitive.
Speaking on The Point of View on Wednesday, Dr. Amoah defended education acquired in the country saying, both the past and reformed approaches to teaching and learning in schools in Ghana have generally proven to be worthwhile.
“All of us went through this system. At the end of this process, you are supposed to take an exam even with this so-called reconfiguration of the syllabus. Really, in our experience, the teachers don’t just come and direct your mind to the exams to be taken.”
“Teaching and learning have always been such that, they try to open your mind and stretch it then the exams follow. And now, all of a sudden we are saying, there is no critical thinking in our schools all these decades? So how do we get the professors?” he quizzed.
There have always been broad debates that modern-day education in Ghana falls short of global standards.
Many continue to argue that, students’ over-reliance on theories other than the application of concepts and the reproduction of same as a means of assessment continues to be inimical to the employability of the graduates who pass out of school year after year.
For some parents, they prefer enrolling their children in top-tier international schools either at home or abroad due to the government’s poor efforts to equip students with relevant skills through the public educational system.
But Dr. Amoah disagrees with these schools of thoughts whose concerns he feels are premised on false assumptions.
He however admitted that although the teaching approach is necessary, it is wholly not sufficient given other existential challenges that are more often than not disregarded in the broader conversation.
“We are missing the point because education is not one-sided. What kind of homes do these children live in? What kind of books do they read. How many good libraries do we have in this country? You need a lot of things.”
“So if you see students, and you say they don’t do well then the question is not simply because of the way they are taught. There might be other factors. So I have a problem with this reductionist view. It doesn’t make sense to me with that kind of analogy. It’s ridiculous in my view,” he added.
