We can't memorise our way out of poverty – Yaw Adutwum delivers impassionate speech at UN event

Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has urged African countries to seriously consider their current educational curricula.

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the minister indicated that the current education curricula of Ghana and other African countries does not engender critical thinking among students in order to put them

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According to him, the current educational system at best, forces students to learn for examination purposes where the students forget all the things they have learnt afterwards.

“I go to schools upon schools and I speak with the students and when I finish, I ask them, I will say do you have any questions for me? No hand goes up. A hand is yet to go up in all my counters in Ghanaian classrooms.

“We have tamed the children. We just want them to write down what we tell them at the day of exams, they should put down what we have told them and we say you’re the best student the country has ever known.

“That kind of education system will not transform Ghana. That kind of education system is not going to give us critical thinking individually, especially since we are in the 21st century and education 4.0 and the industrial revolution,” he said.

He added that “You can’t memorise your way out of poverty but you can critically think and innovate out of poverty. So, Ghanaian schools, African Schools must begin to take a look at what I call an assertive curriculum. A curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and challenge the status quo respectfully within the African culture contest.”

Watch the minister’s speech below:

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— Kenneth Awotwe Darko (@TheKennethDarko) September 22, 2022