All the rich and natural resources of any country are useless, if the required human capital is unavailable to put them into use. Economies that kick started with ours are now formidable and resilient because they gave priority to education – the Asian tigers.

More and more tertiary students especially those in the varsities are falling off due to financial frustration. Those who managed their way through the system come out as “half-baked” graduates. The vista of our streets is a testimony to the rate of drop outs in the basic and senior levels of our education. Per Facts and Figures of Ghana, over 1,129,334 children are out of only primary schools whiles our illiteracy rate hovers at 35 per cent.

Over the decade, our educational reforms and its component parts including the laudable Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) has been a spectacular failure. Nonetheless, we still display gross happy-go-lucky attitude to the realities on the ground. What is the nemesis of our educational policies? My view is not far from yours.

The biggest enemy of our educational policies is politics. It is time we made the education sector completely independent of all forms of political miasma. The political-manifesto-to-and-fro policies of our education are doing us a great disservice as a developing country.

We need resilient, strategic and futuristic educational policies with no-nonsense law to ensure that it is not toyed on grounds of mere fulfilment of campaign promises. These persistent and needless rejig to the policies are not only wasteful to our constraint resources but thrash the educational system to utter higgledy-piggledy – no bearing.

Education is a right, and to make the right realistic, government needs to subvent more funds in the name of subsidies to our educational institutions to avert the mass exodus of students from schools, especially at the tertiary level. Any attempt to reduce government subvention to education will be perfectly chaotic from all angles.

Education is not all about structures; but the core values needed to help propel our society into a near perfect place. There is burgeoning of educational structures across the length and breadth of Ghana with positive correlation in the number of people leaving school. The structures do not make sense any longer. Of what use is a beautiful body (structure) to a bad soul (core values)? Our stakeholder, policy makers, in fact, everyone must put on his or her thinking cap to adding more meaning to our educational system.

Our obsession about structures is becoming a psychological problem. There are several great universities in the world (especially US and UK) that started under trees and plantations. I per se attended the whole of my junior secondary education under a mango tree in St Paul’s JSS, Tamale. I would not be educated, if we waited for structures. For instance, what sense will it make to be in a classroom without a teacher, textbooks, exercise books and other learning materials? Prof Atta Mills summarised my worry with the saying, “A government that attaches premium to formation rather than substance worships mediocrity”.

Sadly, tertiary education is fast becoming a preserve of the rich whiles some programmes at the university is no go area to most capable but incapable students. This is worrying trend that require strategic measures to ensure that education do not become a commodity of a capitalist economy. Most Ghanaians, especially the rural folks, earn less than GH?1,000.00 per annum. The average figures of admission fees into our tertiary institutions this year were GH?700.00 (Nurses’ Training College), GH?800.00 (Teachers’ Training College), and GH?1,400.00 (University undergrads). Strictly speaking, even a double-spine salaried teacher with bloated family cannot afford this. How more the Ghanaian blue-collar worker? Education is the last hope of many unfortunate Ghanaian youth – let us save it from becoming endangered or extinct in the realms of the poor.

Ghana will be doing Cos90 work if we continue to invest significant resources in students at the lower level of education yet allow them to waste at the higher level. Tertiary education must be made accessible to every Tom, Dick and Jane on bases of merit and affordability.

Perceived shenanigans and corruption of getting admission into our tertiary schools is an apocalyptic experience, especially, the health training institutions – admissions are on bid. The highest bidder gets it. Other institution will not only admit unqualified students but will admit, say a science student to do HND Accountancy option. Private universities, however, place more emphasis on ability to pay rather than qualification. What labour force are we producing? Admissions of tertiary schools should be sanitised to have the best going in and the best coming out! It is quality that matters not quantity. Garbage In Garbage Out (GIGO).

Therefore, I am appealing to the ruling government with her socialist ideology to pay more attention to education for it is indispensable in the realms of development.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” – this is a food for thought from Abraham Lincoln.

God bless Ghana!

*Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence*

*confidencegh@gmail.com *

*Faith-Hill** Community School** *

*P. O. Box** 1782**, Tamale*

* *

Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana - Prof. Ernest Aryete

The biggest weakness of the economy is the chronic joblessness of a vast proportion of the people, economist and Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ernest Aryetey, has pointed out.

He expressed worry that, as head of a university, he knows that 50% of graduates who leave the country’s universities will not find jobs for two years after their national service, and 20% of them will not find jobs for three years.

“It reflects the biggest weakness of the economy of Ghana,” he said at the launch of the State of the Ghanaian Economy report by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) in Accra.

The report is ISSER’s 20th publication since the series began in 1991.

“For 20 years, we’ve always said that unemployment deserves much bigger attention in policy than it has been given; and for 20 years we have said that the policies we have been pursuing are not tailored towards job-creation,” the former director of ISSER said.

“The policies have been structured to create a free-market economy, but the market is not free because of structural constraints.”

The industrial sector remains weak, he said, and has not been expanding enough to create the jobs that are needed.

“Today, any serious industrial policy is one that focuses on how the state and the private-sector can work together to generate jobs.”

What compounds the challenge of unemployment, also, is that there are no statistics on the problem in Ghana – a fact that was recently confirmed by the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Enoch Teye Mensah, during an appearance before Members of Parliament.

But the extent of joblessness and under-employment is evident in the huge numbers of youth which line the streets “selling things nobody will buy,” Prof. Aryeetey said.

In the parts of Africa where data are available, unemployment rates are very high. In South Africa, the region’s largest economy, one in three persons in the active labour force is unemployed. Globally, the rate is at 6.1%.

“So one can imagine where Ghana is now that the global rate is at 6.1%,” said Dr. Felix Asante, a senior research fellow of ISSER.

Despite more than two decades of positive growth, the economy is yet to achieve the desirable structural transformation that is needed to move the country into the state of a modern, industrialised and prosperous economy, he said.

ISSER has found some common social challenges that have persisted in the 20 years since it has been reviewing the economy’s performance, he said. Among these are poor health and educational outcomes.

Elitism persists in education at the basic level with most pupils unable to read and write after school, it was found. There is a chronic shortage of health facilities, and primary health-care provision is still inadequate.

Labour and capital are not sufficiently productive, according to the findings, and the general infrastructure of the economy is stretched due to rapid urbanisation and a growing population.

For each year since 1984, the economy has recorded positive real growth – averaging some 5% per annum. But much of this was a period of reform during which the public-sector undertook severe retrenchment, and the private-sector was opened up to competition from producers in all parts of the world.

In the initial years, the reforms seemed to stem the decline in industry and manufacturing; but since then the economy’s manufacturing capacity has shrunk, reaching a low of 6.8% of GDP in 2010. Between 2006 and 2010, the share of manufacturing output in GDP slumped from 10.2% to 6.8%.

Dr. Asante said the biggest potential source of jobs is industry — and not services, which currently dominates activity in the economy.

In June, the government launched an industrial policy that it said is purposed “to transform Ghana into an industry-driven economy capable of delivering decent jobs under conditions of widespread, equitable and sustainable development.”

Job-creation is also the main theme of the government’s 2011 budget and economic policy statement.

“It will be interesting to see the extent to which policies mentioned translate into jobs and youth empowerment,” Nana Owusu Afari, president of the Association of Ghana Industries, said of the budget’s intentions.

State support is critical, he affirmed, to expand industry and create sustainable jobs.

Source: B&FT

He was addressing the 2011 conference of Chief Executives of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Koforidua on Wednesday.

“Provision of clean water, schools, health facilities, protection of the environment, waste management, road construction, rural electrification, poverty reduction and job creation continue to be the pivots around which our governance agenda is revolving,” the President said.

The conference, on the theme: “Implementing the Better Ghana Agenda through sustainable local economic development,” attracted chief executives of MMDAs and senior civil servants from the Eastern, Central, Volta, Western and Greater Accra regions.

The three-day conference is aimed at creating a platform for the participants to take stock of activities as local government administrators, consolidate and sustain the progress so far made.

It will also help review strategies to address any challenges facing the socio-economic development of the various MMDAs.

President Mills said the National Democratic Congress (NDC ) being a social democratic government, social interventions such as the capitation grant, fertiliser subsidies for small-scale farmers, the National Health Insurance Scheme, dedicating portions of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to persons with disability and reduction in electricity tariffs continued to remain very important aspects of its programmes.

With regard to free school uniforms, President Mills called on the chief executives to ensure that local tailors and seamstresses were contracted to sew the uniforms.

He advised the chief executives of MMDAs to give traditional leaders the due recognition in their communities to foster a positive working relationship.

He also urged them to refrain from negative attitudes that could amount to abusing and despising traditional leaders.

“Real power does not belong to us; it belongs to the people and we dare not abuse the power they have reposed in us, lest they take away what legitimately belongs to them,” he said.

The President said he was very pleased to hear some of the traditional leaders commending some of the Chief Executives of the MMDAs for their humility, hard work, ability to give a listening ear and co-operate with the people during his recent tour of some parts of the country.

“I want to assure Chief executives that they are on the right path and must, therefore, continue to work hard because we were voted into office to serve and not to lord it over the people,” he stated.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, bemoaned the poor attitude of some MMDAs towards waste management in their areas.

“MMDAs must do well to take waste management cost seriously and also educate our people to indulge in good waste management and sanitation practices,” he said, adding that they must also make use of sanitation guards to ensure environmental cleanliness.

He urged the chief executives to give premium to local revenue generation to supplement the DACF to enable them to implement more projects for the benefit of the people.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Kwasi Apea-Kubi, urged the participants to use their front-line positions to facilitate the promotion of entrepreneurship in their various areas to create jobs for the youth, especially, graduates from tertiary institutions.

The Eastern Regional member of the Council of State, Osabarima Owusu Gyamadu, who chaired the function called on the government to give priority to the rehabilitation and construction of roads in the rural communities to improve the lot of the people.

In a solidarity message, the General Secretary of NALAG, Alhaji lbrahim M. Sherif, called on the government to increase the DACF from 7.5 per cent to 12 per cent to enable the assemblies to undertake more meaningful development projects as the population in most areas kept increasing.

Ghana’s ranking in the report “The Global Information Technology Report 2010–2011” which was released this month April 2011, shows that the country dropped by one place from the last rankings in 2009-2010 which was 98. Out of the overall mark of 10, Ghana scored 3.4 in the year under review as against 3.3 in 2009-2010.

As compared to 2009-2010 report which captured 133 economies, the 2010-2011 had 138 economies the highest since the report started in 2001. The report, which shows a country’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) said the environmental component in Ghana was ranked at the 82th position. The component includes market, political and regulatory as well as infrastructure environments.

ICT usage in the country is still far below international best practices, especially at the government level. The report ranks Ghana 108 on individual usage scoring 2.5, business usage ranks 102 with a score of 2.7 and government usage at 116 with a score of 2.8 all out of seven points.

Out of seven marks, the report said Ghana’s effectiveness of law-making bodies and laws relating to ICT scored 4.4 and 3.0 respectively.

The report revealed that information on software piracy rate and percentages of software installation were not available.

There was high level of competition in internet and telephony with the country scoring four out six points.

In Ghana, ICT micro-enterprises have played an important role in extending connectivity to remote areas not well covered by the established operators but however, ICT micro-enterprises are exposed to volatility and risk, and returns on investment are often low, forcing entrepreneurs to draw on other sources of income as well, it said.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the assessment of networked readiness continues to be disappointing, with the majority of the region lagging in the bottom half of the NRI rankings, the report indicates.

“Even though ICT penetration rates have soared in the region over recent years, boosted by mobile telephony, and many countries have started to leverage more and more ICT to improve efficiency and reach out more and more to citizens, sub-Saharan Africa does not seem to have progressed as much and as fast as other areas of the world.”

It added: “Underdeveloped infrastructure, inefficient markets, opaque regulatory environments, inadequate educational standards, and widespread poverty are powerful obstacles against a more extensive and efficient use of new technologies for increased development and prosperity in the region.”

Mauritius was ranked first in sub-Sahara Africa followed by South Africa in the region.

Sweden topped the rankings for the second time in a row, with an outstanding performance across board with Singapore placing second followed by Finland, Switzerland, and the United States.

She explained that the country was endowed with vast natural resources and that it was necessary to invest also in the people to equip them with the requisite knowledge and expertise to ensure judicious use of state resources.

Mrs Iddrisu said this in a speech read on her behalf at the 48th anniversary and second speech and prize-giving day of the Agogo State Senior High School at a ceremony at Agogo in the Asante-Akim North Municipality on Saturday.

The day was on the theme: “Provision of Infrastructure in Senior High Schools-Motivation for Quality Education”.

The Minister called for a shared responsibility by government and the citizenry in the provision of basic school amenities such as classrooms, libraries, among other facilities, and noted that that was the only way the increasing number of students could have access to quality education.

She charged students to justify the huge investment being made on them by studying hard because “in this global economy the most valuable skill one could sell is knowledge”.

Mrs Iddrisu commended the founding fathers of the school for their vision, foresight and commitment, adding that the good seed they sowed had helped many to be educated for the benefit of the nation.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Paramount Chief of the Agogo Traditional Area, stated that the Traditional Council would not relent to support the school to help it to improve quality in educational delivery.

Mr Alexis Frimpong-Nimoh, Headmaster of the school, lauded the teaching and non-teaching staff for their commitment to duty which had sustained the school over the years.

Source: GNA

He said the Chinese Government would encourage students to develop interest in studying the Chinese Language in Ghana. Professor Ernest Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor of UG, who received the books, thanked the Chinese Government for the gesture and promised to ensure that the students utilise them. 7 Dec. 10

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, said that the results of various schools would be despatched through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education.

It said that candidates might access their results online from tomorrow, Tuesday, August 3.

The statement said 1,075 candidates had their subject results cancelled while 76 candidates had their entire result cancelled.

The affected candidates were involved in various examination irregularities.

These include bringing foreign materials into the examination hall, seeking/receiving help from non-candidates such as invigilators, supervisors and tearing parts of their question papers and answer booklets and collusion.

In some insstances, candidates traded in powder-throwing, smearing their colleagues in congratulatory gestures as they stormed out of the exams halls into a new world.

Some shouted “it is all over” and for others it was “the toils are over”.

French papers I and II completed the week-long exercise that will be the basis for the selection of students for Senior High School and Technical Schools.

The exams started on Monday, April 19 with over 300,000 candidates nationwide.

Myjoyonline visited some centres in Accra including the O’Reilly High School Centre which had a total of 276 candidates from five different schools.

Centre supervisor M.S.K Dankwa told Myjoyonline.com that all candidates had been present throughout the week to take the exams.

He noted that the only problem the centre encountered had to do with two candidates who could not write the pre-technical skills paper because they were not registered for any of the options under the subject.

The Accra High School Centre B on the other hand had 230 candidates drawn from nine schools.

Five candidates were persistently absent.

According to Centre supervisor J.T. Tugah, the centre did not encounter any problem throughout the 5-day exams except for the John Harvard Junior High School which did not write the French paper because its candidates were not registered.

A total of 236 candidates took the exams at the Accra High School Centre A.

These candidates also came from nine schools all in Accra.

Three candidates were absent from Monday to Thursday but four did not turn up on Friday to write the French papers.

Good Report

All the supervisors who spoke toMyjoyonline.comcomplained about the time with which exams papers were made available to them.

The claimed officers in charge of making the papers available to them always arrived late, thereby slowing the whole process.

They appealed to authorities to provide them with the papers ahead of time in subsequent examinations.

When the bell rang for the end of the examinations, candidates at the Accra High School centres A & B shouted for joy as they rushed out of the exams halls.

Myjoyonline.com’s visit to the Nima Cluster of Schools centre during the final paper, French saw a relatively calm atmosphere with students busily concentrating on the paper.

It was the centre for five schools, namely; Kokomlemle 1 and 2 JHS, Nima 1 and 2 JHS, St Kizito JHS, Ghana National Academy JHS and students from the Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service. 284 pupils sat for the exams with the final day, Friday recording 17 absentees due to fact that the Senior Correctional Centre did not write the final paper.

Supervisor for the centre, Agnes Adenyo told Myjoyonline.com that the centre did not recorded any exam malpractice and the pupils have been very disciplined. She said the centre which had 10 invigilators has been applauded by the various exam inspectors who came on regular check-ups.

By: Dorcas Efe Mensah and Ernest Dela Aglanu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana