EDUCATION, THE POLITICIANS’ DRAFT?

There is a school of thought that states that it is in the interest of politicians to have education in their nations crumble to be on the safe side, because, the higher the level of illiteracy, the lower the criticisms of the government and the easier it is to win the mandate of the people. This is because people who are educated may not be easily fooled but the less educated ones only need gifts to be convinced. Being a Ghanaian, I do mostly believe that this school of thought is being greatly utilized by every government in power.

If not, how can you explain the many promises made by wanna be politicians pertaining to education and their lack of fulfillment when they ascend their thrones? I will not take you far, during the political campaign for election 2012, education was used as the highlight for the competition for the people’s mandate. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) under its symbolic umbrella promised to strengthen the educational system by making teachers comfortable, building more schools and providing schools with everything needed in order to provide quality education in Ghana. They even had their slogan Quality and not quantity in motion for a long time because the National Patriotic Party (NPP) under their symbolically huge elephant also promised the free secondary school for everyone. Most Ghanaians voted for the NDC because they thought NPP’s promise of free secondary school was too fake to be true.

After the election, he increased the salary of public workers by 10% only to increase utility bills by more than 100%. The other taxes that came to stay, I prefer not to mention. Schools that were under trees are still under the trees, if I decide to exaggerate a bit, I will say that those schools are under less shaded trees because expensive utility bills have forced many people to cut down branches of many trees instead of going to buy gas because they cannot afford to.

After two years of rule and no promise fulfilled, the smooth electrical supply has not been realized, if anything, it has increased compared to when that promise was made and the educational system is worse off with grumbling teachers who cannot afford to feed well so have less enthusiasm in teaching, you cannot blame them, it is very difficult to teach on an empty stomach, believe me, and so forth.

The final load that broke the camel’s back is the fact that the NDC government under its young leader President Mahama has turned into an optimistic church in chaos whose preacher seeks to gain more collection to salvage the rot that seeks to conquer the whole by promising the ‘unrealizables’. He promises anything and everything apart from what he promised in his 2012 manifesto. Now he has turned into an ideological thief who steals promises of fellow competitive party. We all know of his recent promises of providing free high school education. Let us not forget of the Northern scholarship which is in shambles and for which schools can close down for a whole month in order to force the government to provide some of the feeding grants.

Not that I think it is impossible, I know it is impossible and that no matter how much he tries to provide that form of education to ward off his competition, it will crumble to the ground in no time. I was glad when the government had a young president but with recent happenings I am regretting it greatly. Why? There are so many evidences of immaturity. How can you not finish your food in a food competition and stroll off to finish the food of your competition? What do you expect your fans to do and who do you expect your fans to root for in that food competition?

Is this a ploy to always contort our minds from following in the progress of schools in Ghana? By saying one thing and opting to do another? By promising better days for the educational sector and turning round to make it worse? Is our educational sector a pawn in the bait of politicians? If so, is it to intentionally worsen the educational sector so as to minimize the educational level of citizens who can put them on their toes and unmask their corrupt governance?

Left to me alone, education should be like the judiciary; independent and free from political interferences (though I know no institution can be completely free from political interference). But even if it is only on paper, it will help the electorates consider other factors of the promises to be made and vote wisely based on some other promises and not education. Education is the stronghold of every nation. It must not be made a draft played by mischievous people for their own benefits. Ghana is not meant for one individual, Ghana is not for one political party, Ghana is for all, let us vigilant and fight for the right causes.

        Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © 2014.