Purpose of education in Ghana rated at success in WAEC results, rather unfortunate

The ministry of education, political persons, the president of the republic have shifted attention from what the purpose of education in Ghana is to scoring high marks in exams, and that is really unfortunate.

Looking at the economic growth level in Ghana since the time formal education began in Africa and in Ghana, development has been slower than expected. The slowness of economic development can be said to be a result of many factors but one would agree with me that education is the center for economic development and growth.

The president of the Republic of Ghana has missed the mark and the aim of education for Ghana by scoring the success of education in Ghana with WAEC results.

Following the politicizing of education in Ghana, the purpose of education, which must be (1) the building of the human capacities (2) being able to solve an individual and societal problem using what has been learnt, and (3) building the economy of the country from the knowledge and skills received from the various training centers, has been lost and some individuals including the president are focusing on WAEC results.

Ghana as a country will not have an increase in economic development as long as the country focuses on scoring marks than evaluating the value of graduates and trying to look at what is being taught in the various schools.

Today, Ghana has many graduates, who are unemployed, because (1) they don’t have the skills to create jobs for themselves and (2) most of them too don’t have the skills needed for the job market. This must be our concern if as a country we seek development.

Notwithstanding, the Free SHS policy will be honored every day since it is going to increase the country’s literacy rate. We praise Nana Addo who went the self-government now approach and made sure the policy saw daylight.

However, the question we as Ghanaians should be asking ourselves today is, what has been the purpose of education in Ghana, and why should government craft a kind of education that answers the needs of Ghana.

I Emmanuel Graham Nyameke is of the view that education should after having built the human capacities, help the human being improve his life and his society, and if this is not happening, education has failed.