Does Ghana need experimental schools?

 The school or education system should be dynam­ic to meet the demands of the ever-changing world, with the changes leaving in their trail new things, positive or negative, that must be handled in the system.

How should the State handle such changes in the system?

The Founder of the Chris­tian University College (CUC), Ghana, Reverend Dr Devine Amattey, for his part, has called for the reintroduction of the ex­perimental school concept at the basic school level, if the country desires to make the best out of its educational reforms.

Experimental schools are usually part of the basic-level institutions and are considered as innovative models for testing new teaching methods and approaches.

In other words, experimental schools provide the avenue for the state to pilot new educational policies before replicating them in all the other schools.

Experimental schools have been around for many decades across the globe, and it appears the country abandoned the concept, hence the call for its reintroduction.

Clearly, the experimental school concept is a traditional method of trying innovations in the school system.

The question now is, in a rapidly-evolving world, where the emerging changes affect everyone everywhere, should the country continue to select a few schools in which to try new methods or ideas?

Can’t certain educational reforms be introduced wholesale prefaced with some training for teachers and their supervisors, so that all school children across the country would benefit from them at the same time?

Though it stands to be corrected, The Ghanaian Times believes before any innovations could be introduced in the education system, there should be some analyses of it such that how it is going to be implement­ed must be well-planned and made fool-proof.

Education innovations are not like new drugs, for instance, that must be tested a number of times to prove their efficacy because of the health risks some of which can be fatal.

Experimenting certain educa­tion innovations in a few schools usually denies other children the timely opportunity to benefit from the innovations.

The junior secondary school (now junior high school) is a typical example.

It is instructive to note that it was the Colonel I.K Ache­ampong regime that introduced it on experimental basis in the early 1970s until its full-scale im­plementation across the country in 1987.

The over one decade of ex­perimentation could not resolve all the problems before the full-scale implementations as the problems of textbooks, lack of teachers, workshops and equip­ment among other problems emerged.

In spite of the problems and the criticisms, the system has produced brilliant students who have continued up the education ladder and are now eminent professionals.

What The Ghanaian Times rather believes in is that the country’s education system must be guided by UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education meant to shape future-ready people with essential knowledge, skills, and values for personal and profes­sional success.

The pillars are Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be, and are timeless.

What would ensure the success of these pillars for all Ghanaian children are teacher motivation and the strict supervi­sion of teachers’ work to ensure teachers are held accountable for students’ poor performance unless proven otherwise.

Why, for instance, are most public junior high school prod­ucts unable to read and write even primary school books?

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