By Nana Osei-Kwabena
This article will be focusing on pre-tertiary education in Ghana and how it influences the development of Science and Technology. Parallel examples would be drawn from other African countries as appropriate.
The Ghana education system and that of many other countries can be divided into two main areas: pre-tertiary and tertiary education. In Ghana, the pre-tertiary is managed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) whereas the tertiary is managed essentially by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE). How do we define education? There are several definitions available, but I will define education as a systematic development of the human mind through a measured exposure to information and reasoning.
For decades, the educational system of Ghana and that of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) member countries were based on an adapted British educational system, which entailed 6 years of primary education, 4 years of middle school and 7 years of secondary education. Policy makers in Ghana identified several problems with this system, which included prolonged school years and purely academic content of curricula. And so in in 1987, the pre-tertiary education in Ghana was radically reformed. The length for pre-tertiary education was shortened to: 6 years primary, 3 years Junior Secondary School (JSS) and 3 years Senior Secondary School (SSS). In essence, pre-tertiary education was shortened from 17 to 12 years. The direct effect of this reform was that it reduced the cost of pre-tertiary education and made more funds available to expand and improve existing infrastructure so as to partially meet the requirements of the Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) for all. Currently, all the WAEC member countries are using this system and it appears similar to the American pre-tertiary education system. Though a lot of effort has gone into the implementation of the new educational system, it has had its fair share of problems. Among others, all of the WAEC member states have been faced with various degrees of poor examination performance in science – as have been determined by WAEC. And the cause may be one of two things, that the educational system is not working well for our students in science or it is lacking the necessary inputs to enable it work efficiently. In any system, a good input usually produces a good output (and vice versa) and so the latter point of lack of necessary inputs may be a large contributor to the poor performance in science of the current educational system. This is not to say that the WAEC member countries including Ghana are not working on the problems. In fact they are, but then they must prioritize Science and Technology to enable it to receive the necessary resources (human, funding and recognition) to thrive.
The quality of science and technological education at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level is crucial because it is a foundation for further science studies at the Senior Secondary School (SSS) or entry into the labor force. However, many of the teachers who handle this subject are SSS graduates who may not have mastery over the subject. This issue is particularly prominent in the private sector. To make the situation worse, many of these SSS graduate teachers of science may not have majored in science at the SSS. And so, poor science is done/delivered at the JSS level making the students perceive science as a difficult and complicated subject – a perception that can be carried with them for the better part of their school life and influence their decisions in Science and Technology in the future. As our student population grows and Science and Technology evolves, so should be our trained teachers. It is a good effort by the government of Ghana to develop the teacher training certificate programs into diploma programs. However, here it is recommended that the government of Ghana makes plans to strengthen the science discipline in the 38 or so training colleges in Ghana and more importantly encourage more teachers to be trained in science and technical skills so that they can replace some of the SSS teachers. Several more training colleges should also be built for that purpose. The other WAEC member countries can work along similar lines.
In 1995, the government of Ghana established the Science Resource Centers (SRC) project as part of the educational reforms. The SRCs covered one hundred and ten (110) senior secondary schools spread across Ghana. The idea behind this project was to bridge the gap between resourced schools and non-resourced schools in science within a forty kilometer radius. Indeed, this was a bold decision taken by government of Ghana. Assuming that the resource centers had enough funds to buy equipment and materials, the one most important element/factor that will be needed for successful delivery of science education at such places will be the competency, dedication and current knowledge in science and technology of the teaching staff. That is not or cannot be guaranteed and so it would not be out of place if professors at our universities are attached to the SRCs – to assist in the teaching of especially more difficult concepts in theory and lab work to both teachers and students. In fact in the United States, many science College professors are tied to the high schools. They go there to teach and also to oversee what their colleagues at the high schools do. This is an inspiration to both teachers and students alike. In the same manner, SSS science teachers should be attached to JSS schools so that they can offer some help in the teaching of the science subject at that level. This measure will allow for fluidity in Science and Technological education in Ghana and other African countries.
The science syllabi of the old educational system and the new one are not very much different in academic content but the students within the new educational system are much younger than the old system. It will not be productive to essentially stick to the science syllabi of the old system if we want to make progress, because those syllabi do not have aspects that seriously deal with the problems of our country. We should seek to comprehensively redesign the science syllabi and make them more relevant to our economy. The syllabi should be able to cover at least some of the basic problems we face as a nation and creative methods (which will not be limiting) to remedy them. I recommend that about 10 – 40% of the science syllabi (whether integrated science or pure science subjects) are devoted for this purpose and the rest to the core science principles – for the duration of the pre-tertiary education. These percentages should be linked to the level of education such that at the primary school level, 10 -15% of the science syllabi will be devoted to problems and solutions confronting the nation, 15-25% at the JSS and 25-40% at the SSS. Equally important is the fact the syllabi should be directed towards raising curiosity, creativity and entrepreneurship in students. To craft such a syllabi will require extensive brainstorming by competent scientist, policy makers and even business people. We should not assume that the problems of the country can be best tackled at the university. National development in Science and Technology in our present circumstances will require the contribution from all.
Another area which needs serious consideration is the lack of well written textbooks (either from the government or the public) to suit the demands of our science and technological development. Most of the science books on the market are still essentially based on the old educational system. Though I think it is a good and bold step to produce indigenous books for use by our students, the book writers must be assisted. It would not be out of place if the Curricula Research and Development Division (CRDD) of the Ghana Education Service and similar bodies of other WAEC member countries organize workshops for book writers in their respective countries or together so that authors are more informed of what is required of them and that the CRDD have some control of what the public consumes in terms of scientific material. From my standpoint, attending the CRDD workshops should be a pre-condition for writing science books, and with time more stringent measures could be put in place to control quality of science material on the market.
These are a few of the adjustments we could make to the pre-tertiary educational sector in Ghana/Africa to boost Science and Technology development. Please look out for the next article.
By Nana Osei-Kwabena
Email: sciencnt@yahoo.com
