Political meddling is the enemy of high-quality education in Ghana – Professor
According to Professor Mohammed Hadi Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji, political meddling in Ghana’s educational system has done more harm than benefit.
Prof. Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji is the Foundation Dean of SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), where he oversees the School of Education and LifeLong Learning. He identified two critical issues affecting the quality of education in the nation: the creation of new policies to score political points and the discontinuation of policies on political lines.
“This practice has brought about frequent changes in education curriculum and the discontinuing of educational projects, which previous governments had implemented.
“These abandoned projects are dotted round in many schools and when they are to be re- awarded on contract, the cost increases above the previous cost and puts a burden on national coffers”, he pointed out.
Professor Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji, who was the guest speaker at the launch of the 30th Annual Conference of the Directors of Education
(CODE) held in Wa, said another obstacle hindering quality education was partisan politics.
He said partisan politics had also taken over the formulation of educational policies without the active participation of teachers and parents as critical stakeholders but were always asked to implement them when they were not owners of such policies.
The topic of discussion at the week-long conference was “Resourcing of Basic Education in Ghana for Quality Education Delivery.”
The purpose of the platform was to provide a means of introspection on the previous year’s performance, policy discussions regarding excellent pre-tertiary education, and recommendations for methods to enhance results and performance.
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Professor Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji listed a number of factors affecting the nation’s quality educational delivery, including lack of resources, deficiencies in the infrastructure, issues with access, equity, and inclusivity, problems with teacher motivation and retention, the creation and application of policies, and geopolitical polarisation.
According to him, a significant obstacle confronting the education sector is the insufficient and minimal budgetary allocation, which has been counteracted by inflation in recent years.
Professor Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji listed some of the issues threatening the nation’s quality of education, including the lack of proper teaching resources, textbooks, and teacher guides to assist curriculum implementation and improve teaching and learning.
According to him, there is a direct link between good infrastructure and high-quality education. In particular, having enough, furnished classrooms and hygienic facilities may enhance performance, lower the dropout rate, and improve teaching and learning outcomes.
He claimed that testing students and emphasising exam results above comprehension development led to rote learning among students, which was detrimental to high-quality education.
In order to increase performance, Professor Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji urged all parties involved in education to give careful thought to teacher motivation, training, and advancement.
“Right now, the promotion structure is problematic and lacks transparency as it is shrouded in favouritism and corruption even though promotion is crucial to quality education delivery” , he stated.
In order to protect the membership from political meddling and insinuations, Professor Abdul-Ganiy Bolaji advised teacher union leadership to remain steadfast and united.
He, however, said despite the numerous challenges affecting quality education, some tremendous efforts and successes had been recorded in the educational sector especially regarding quality education.
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