Ghana’s education system not globally competitive – Patrick Awuah

President of Ashesi University, Patrick Awuah, has said Ghana’s education system is not globally competitive.

Mr. Awuah said this is due to some challenges mainly at the basic level of the country’s educational system.

“I think the Ghanaian educational system has major challenges and it is not globally competitive at this time.  If you look at how Ghana does on the PISA test, for instance, in mathematics and science… Ghana is always at the bottom of that table with South Africa,” he said on Citi TV’s current affairs programme, The Point of View hosted by Bernard Avle.

Mr. Awuah said if you look at the functional literacy rate of pupils who go through the basic level it is not really encouraging.

“If you look at functional literacy with kids who’ve gone through the public educational system, the percentage of them who are functionally literate after three or six years of education is not a very pretty picture.”

He thus urged government and the stakeholders within the educational sector to fix the problem with immediate effect else Ghana may not be able to rock shoulders with other countries in terms of education.

“…There’s clearly work to be done in the primary school system, and the junior high school system.  That I will say is urgent, it is extremely urgent that we fix that problem,” he added.

Ghana ranks bottom in Maths, Science survey report

Ghana was in 2015 ranked last among 76 countries across the world in the biggest ever global school rankings on mathematics and science.

The report, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had countries such as Oman, Morocco, Honduras, South Africa which ranking 72, 73, 74 and 75 respectively.

Use fund-raising system to sustain free SHS – Patrick Awuah

Mr. Awuah on The Point of View also proposed the establishment of a voluntary fundraising initiative to sustain government’s free Senior High School programme.

The government implemented the free SHS program in September 2017, in fulfillment of a major campaign promise in the run-up to the 2016 election.

“Free SHS is a done deal. It is happening and I do not see it reversing. Now the question is how do we make it sustainable and how do we make it high quality. One of the ways to make it sustainable is to develop a fundraising capability within the schools, asking people to voluntarily contribute funds to the institution, not mandating them,” he added.

Sustain free SHS with more day schools, not boarding – Patrick Awuah

Mr. Patrick Awuah also believes that one of the best ways to sustain the government’s Free Senior High School programme is to focus on having more day schools instead of the boarding system.

“Free SHS is a done deal. It is happening, and I do not see it reversing. Now the question is how do we make it sustainable and how do we make it high quality. One of the ways to make it sustainable is to develop a fundraising capability within the schools, asking people to contribute funds to the institution, not mandating them voluntarily.”

“Another way to make it sustainable is to do what most high schools in the world that are free do; which is they are not boarding schools. If you go to any country that has 100 percent enrollment in high school, those are not boarding schools. Yes, there are a few boarding schools, but the vast majority of schools are day schools so that the state is not building dormitories, buying beds, feeding kids ” he said.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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