FALLING STANDARDS OF GHANA’S EDUCATION – A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

Whoever said Ghana had a running educational system must be right conceptually but practically wrong. Ghana, as a country, has been conceptualized to mean the systems and institutions and not the people and that is affecting the very core of our society. Through my educational journey I never knew the diminishing state of our education and I wouldn't have accepted it had someone else said to me. It became apparent to me after leaving college of education, when I had the chance to teach.

Our educational standards fell, are falling, and will fall until a "decent government" acts without fear nor favour and with purpose and vision. If our educational system were a woman, she would have been the most adulterous woman ever. Why? Every political party that comes to power has a way of fondling with her breasts. One government says to go right, the other says to go left, and we do because we only have our say and not way.

Over a million questions run through my mind every morning when I stand before fourteen partially naked primary one pupils to teach. I know these questions cannot have any meaningful answers from any quarter so I ask in my mind. The answers to these questions are ensconced in the minds of all the stakeholders of education so I do not ask as they come up. But it is high time the teacher made it clearer to the world that the fall of our educational standards cannot be said to be their fault. Not entirely.

My late father used to tell me how he walked for 7km to and from school each day. He described the kind of hunger that got his intestines perforated and all that he went through just so he could be a 'man'. What happened to our time when almost every suburb had a school? Teachers are in abundance - forget what government tells you about lack of teachers. We all believe that the gone-were-those-days was the "bagyimi bere" so all they did was, well... never mind, yet they were the best in all their educational endeavours. Comparatively. It's 2014 and counting, touchscreen devices and coming, but there is no end in sight to our educational woes.

On September 2, 2014, I logged on to Twitter and came across a tweet from Nana Ama Asante of CitiFm. I replied to the tweet and hurriedly tuned in to CitiFm. Bernard Avle was playing sound bites of pupils from the Accra Metropolis who could not spell 'Mathematics' and 'English'. Other pupils could read but not understand what they read. It was interesting to the ear but the heart and soul could only shed tears. I came back on Twitter, tweeted and retweeted until my battery passed away.

There were views, opinions and suggestions from concerned Ghanaians and perceived stakeholders. It seems, in actuality, that the Ghanaian is totally clueless as far as our educational needs are concerned. Governments pretend to know so they formulate policies, teachers who are paid so unemployment rate will decrease, also implement. Learners, who because it is their natural and constitutional right, sit down to swallow these things and parents who pay taxes and, therefore, think their children ought to be educated, do not question.

This is confirmed by complaints from employers that our university graduates are not up to the task required of them. That is not an excuse to keep a lean workforce so they can have more-than-enough profits. If you are as objective as to say that night follows day, you should be nodding your head to this.

What I am writing here are my views as well, not any person's, neither empirically proven. I will talk about government, teachers, learners and parents and I will extend it to the argument about private versus public schools. Again, I am consulting no paper or person, just my observations as a public school teacher. I have only taught for five academic years.

GOVERNMENT

Undoubtedly, it is government's responsibility to ensure there is education. Whether free or affordable, education is education and since there are teachers employed by government, buildings housing learners, materials distributed, the government will forever boast of providing education. Ideally, government is providing education. Stop shaking your head! And that is all government does.

Going beyond this are the issues of loopholes in government's role and the assumed responsibilities it ought to perform. Materials are truly inadequate; I am a teacher so I know when I say it. Textbooks, chalk, attendance registers, exercise books, terminal report cards and others are inadequate if not nonexistent. Headteachers are called to go for materials and they never get enough. Last academic my school received three attendance registers instead of eight. From whose pocket does money fly out to get the rest? Capitation grant? Maybe.

Parents are gradually becoming irresponsible in response to government's uncouth culture of promises. In the 2012/13 academic year I was heading a school in the Atiwa District. A mother brought her daughter and after being offered admission I asked her to buy learning materials and uniform the following week. As politically assured as she was, she asked, "ah, am I supposed to buy any of them"? She was not expecting me to buy them either but she wanted me to go in to the office, in front of which we sat, and return with those items. Why? Government promised free uniform and exercise books and her daughter was entitled to them, too.

The issue of content seems a no-go area but it should not be. I remember while pursuing my first degree at U.E.W. by distance, my biology tutor said a flower we were to learn about could only be found in the U.S.A. It really made a lot of sense to fly for that flower. A primary one pupil in Ghana is made to learn about snow. I still remember some passages I read in primary school simply because they were relatable. Our current text books have been stuffed with western lifestyle and ideologies so much so that the pupil reads with their lips and that is the end.

One of Sherifa Gunu's songs has lines taken from a story in primary four English reader. Her producer called her to find lyrics to suit a beat he had already produced. She listened to the beat and there and then, "kreketeke soya" came to mind; that story about the hawk and the hen. How old is Sherifa and when was she in P4? She had this conversation with Jessica Osafo Saforo on CitiFm .

Why do we always have to change publishers with varying content and yet try to conform to the curriculum? We can think local and still go global if we want to. The way and the will to go global are two different things. While there is enough of the latter, with the former, we lag

behind. Can it explained as a way to keep us illiterate while in the classroom? Government itself is illiterate.

Learners are promised books, shoes, uniforms, food, laptops, money and sanitary pads. Thanks to our governments for lifting the load off our heads. These goodies which come in fine packages and lovely christened, are the most useless enrolment drives. Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) came on board but it failed to achieve its objectives. Did the government take time to find out why it failed? Whether or not it did and whatever the outcome, was it worth all that went into it?

Capitation grant came and government defaulted, school feeding arrived and government defaulted, free uniform, exercise books, laptops, and they phased out like..., well, never mind. I am not trying to remind you of what government could not do. Like I said early on, it is my observation. Why is government trying to shut its eyes to the reality? Why is the electorate pretending these goodies are truly bearing fruits when it is not? Why has someone not taken it upon himself to tell government it is farting around? Our educational system does not need these tangible things to flourish.

You realize that all of these goodies could not succeed simply as a result of lack of vision. Politicians, when they wake up and think of ways to ghettoise our senses so we vote for them, think like they don't think. Ghanaians must learn to question issues and that is another benefit of education. Government is slowly sinking our educational system. True education can never be made available by government because those who make up the government do not make use of true education. Watch them on television, listen to them on radio and you will know what I mean.

TEACHERS

I am a teacher, yes! I was trained for three years. I have taught for five years. I did not go to the college of education because I was a dropout of SHS as someone tweeted and Bernard Avle retweeted.

If you are thinking teaching is an art, try teaching your 4-year old child. Your children go to school with nothing on their minds, what pedagogists call "tabula rasa", "blank slate". All you provide are a backpack with sweets, a pair of shoes designed the Tom-and-Jerry style, a digital abacus, and your darling boy or girl grows up knowing how to write their name. Isn't it amazing? You never know how we do it, do you? What keeps a teacher hungry is not the act of teaching but the incessant call for calm and discipline in the classroom. Try restricting a learner from doing something or going somewhere and the look on their face says they just finished doing the opposite.

We impregnate your daughters, we extort money from your children, we insult them, beat them and the other one...child labour. We sit to chat when we are supposed to be teaching. You think teachers are not resourceful, they are lazy and destitute of understanding of their conscientiously chosen profession, add more. But don't forget that we were born as you, Mr. Perfect, were. We chose to be teachers as you chose to have that child. Our decision fits as our nose.

As a radio set transmits what the waves bring, so are teachers powerless over what government says they should teach. National Literacy Acceleration Programme (NALAP) is a clear case in point. Government wants teachers to instruct in local languages so as to enhance easy understanding. A lot of funds went into it and government was satisfied, after all, it did something worthy. There is no Ghanaian parent who wishes to hear a teacher talk to their child in a local language. That is why I said earlier that government cannot ensure there is good education. Cross-purpose, isn't it. So stop blaming us when your child can't speak or understand instructions in English language.

Teaching is no longer a sacrifice as we primitively think. To say you know the value of education and not appropriately place the teacher in the same position is a perversion of natural justice. A tweet said that teachers were dropouts of SHS and that is why our children are failing academically. Isn't this another form of miseducation? The tweet continued, "...tell me how many SHS students with aggregate 6-12 wilfully choose Training College." Well, how many SHS students with aggregate 6-12 will be able to turn a "tabula rasa" into a critical thinker with useful attitudes which will translate into desired developments? These brilliant SHS students are the same who, after university, are turned down because they do not fit the job market. Some teachers are also not good for their job, undeniably.

Do teachers need extra motivation to deliver? If you answered in the affirmative I'd like to think that you are not in love with yourself or you are being misinformed. Pupils don't motivate me to teach, but my salary. Teachers who depend on pupils as motivation to deliver are always found in the wrong direction. Our salaries are not enough; my wife just told me to write that. But it's better than someone else's; you just smiled. I blame teachers for their meagre salaries for their proverbial divine profession. Thumbs up to POTAG and UTAG.

There is a psychological warfare between teachers and police officers which has existed since the introduction of Single Spine Salary Structure. I don't know what that means but waakye sellers understand it to mean a kind gesture by the government that makes teachers go to the bank with sacks. Only teachers. Teachers must fight for their economic rights. The president's monthly salary can pay me for 13 calendar months. That should get your mouth watering but mine is dropping. Workers will eternally agitate for better conditions of service which, when broken down, simply means salary increment. Whether or yes your salary is small, you must deliver. Heaven was made for teachers, says the primitive mind.

One thing most of us don't know and those who know don't want to accept is that teachers don't teach. We only guide your children to learn. Believe it or leave, dear reader. Did you teach your child to feel sleepy? You only guided them to sleep at the right place. Teachers do not control what enters your child's head. The process of knowledge acquisition is a highly personalized activity. This sounds like I am saying your child is responsible for what they learn. Yes, that is what I want to carry across. Parents don't control that either. Next time you decide to scold a teacher, double your anger and give it to your child. Nicely.

Make time and visit some schools when salaries are paid and you will love the atmosphere. Serene. Teachers in my school will tell you that "we don't joke with issues concerning salaries". Don't misconstrue this to mean that we don't teach when paid. We only arm ourselves financially. There are times my mood swings and you know how mood affects our daily activities. Loathsome as it may seem to be on my feet and write on the chalkboard, I try to do something. With our right hands up, I, on behalf of my colleagues, promise to be of good behaviour.

All I am saying is that teachers are not to blame neither are they not to blame for our educational misfortunes but your children themselves. Tell them they can do it and if they truly put their mind to it, they will.

PARENTS

Merely registering your child in school, getting learning materials and greasing his palm for school each morning, is not synonymous with good parenting. The pupil who stays very late in school leaves around 4pm. The remaining sixteen hours are spent with the parent at home. Hasn't the parent got greater influence on the child? If a parent has solid dreams for the child, won't he invest his time, money and energy in the child? Ensuring your child get the best form of education is a subset of parenting but it is almost the universal set. You are asking why I said that so I am telling you now. Education, if only man will truly embrace it, will end all our problems. Isn't education what brings food to the table? And are we not hustling and bustling because of our stomach? Find that one man who never went to school and talk to him. Food is second to God in our lives; be human and accept that.

I am sometimes tempted to think that our children are our worst woes and the school is the right place to dump them. Why would you send your child to school without pen, book and food, and still want him to call you a parent? Sitting in your kitchen and thinking that the teacher ought to be kind to buy your child learning materials is, well,...(fill in the blanks). Teachers are not philanthropists; didn't you know that? If you are not ready for formal education, try farm education - all education be education.

I would like to suggest to you to be solely responsible for your child's education. Government will pretend to be helping and teachers will be available to confuse your child. Wide is the way to help your child succeed academically. Getting your child enrolled and prepared for school is only a preparation for school life. To make that little man or woman accountable for your sweaty investment, it will be advisable to establish a cordial relationship with the teacher to know more about your child. It's also a good thing to ask if they have any homework to do and if yes, you need to help them do it. Make sure they are not truant as they would wish. We were all children and we loved the idea of staying away from school. This so-called technologically inclined generation has an insatiable taste for truancy so be guarded.

Teachers know more than you do about your own child. We hear from and about them more than you do and that might confirm the cliche that learners feel more confident with their teachers than with their parents. That is why children teach you what teachers teach them and feel so confident about it. Some teachers provide answers to questions as they should be answered no matter what 'civilised' parents think are the consequences. If a pupil asks me how his mother got pregnant, I would tell him as it is. No long things. And when he asks you the same question and you soup up a story, it's to your disadvantage. Bear that in mind. Don't leave the task of education solely to the teacher.

Truancy is an effect of a cause and the cause is usually from home. Children from broken, mended or 'untouched' homes have a truancy gene. Schools also breed truancy, trust me. Whether from home or school, when found out, parents have a duty to deal with it. It is more dangerous if the school is the cause. Imagine a 'disciplined' teacher who will not allow a pupil to breathe while he is teaching or a headmaster who will punish a poor man's child because he wears a tattered uniform. Some pupils just have truancy hot-wired into their genes so they naturally are truant. Be reminded once again that the parent must solely ensure his child get good education. Teachers will come and go, governments will come and go, ideas will come and phase out, but parenthood will endure until the Throne descends.

Animals learn by imitation. You and I are higher animals so we learn by imitation, too. What are you teaching your child by your actions? One free advice I give to parents concerning their child's education is that "don't do what you don't want to see your child do". Follow what the Bible says, " train up the child the way he should go so he will not depart from it when he grows". Isn't it rightly said? I am sharing a story to tease your senses. A KG2 girl in my school told her friends one hot afternoon, "I feel for a penis, find me one". She also described how her father made love to her mother. The teachers laughed about it until one of us met the girl's mother say the same words to a friend. Would the mother not question the usefulness of the school if she heard her daughter say those words? That is how crudely parents have conspired to ruin the future of children.

Show your child, do not tell him, that you have a keener interest in his future and that is why you are doling out cash towards his education. Homework or assignment is not given so your child will have an excuse to shirk their responsibilities. It is meant to refresh their mind. And the child who has not intrinsically discerned the true value of education will always push his homework under the bed. You have done it before so why do you think your budding angel will

do the opposite? The things we did in the past are being perpetrated by our offspring in a more fashionable way and the damage is no less. Even greater.

You have read above that governments only pretend they are providing education. Our "Unable Members" tell us they are giving us education because the constitution has it enshrined and they do not want to go contrary. Be responsible for your child from fertilization until you are no more. Listening to governments and believing their stupid promises to reduce your burden is not what you were made for. Government did nothing when you were getting married and so it cannot be there when you are bringing up your child. It is like adding salt while boiling egg. You see? All promises they make that get your thumb in their favour actually slighten your dignity as a parent. If you have been able to get your daughter to SHS, can't you buy her a pack of sanitary pads once a every month? Parents must stop downgrading themselves by clapping for such goodies.

Teachers are humans and our motivation to teach comes from different situations. I have told you that teachers shouldn't be motivated by their pupils but we sometimes are and we should be. I love neatly dressed pupils, I respect the brilliant, I pray for the respectful, I support the needy, and I play with the playful. I guess these are not fallibilities. A pupil in tattered uniform, without learning materials, and with a higher concentration of naturally occurring perfume, totally turns off a teacher. It is the parent's job to take all away. Do not forget that you are reading about a public school teacher's views on the falling standards in our educational system. I am only talking about my observations in the last five academic years that I have been teaching. I cannot exhaust all there is to the problem.

Our fathers talk about how corporal punishment was applied in their school days and how it brought change. I never enjoyed it as everybody else but I appreciate the work it did in my bones. Corporal punishment has been eliminated by government all because it is crude, say human rights activists. It is indeed. But is there anything as crude as rejecting education? I want to touch on the issue of parents who beat teachers to appease their children when they are punished. Unwarranted, misplaced machismo. I have personally encountered such a parent and I prayed in my head for a touch from him. I have actually forgotten all I have said above so pardon me for any contradictions.

CHILDREN

At the heart of our education is that child; I once was and you once were. I don't know how the world is trying to shape our children without our consent. They know all about footballers, musicians and actors and yet cannot write their own names. They know the cost of producing mobile phones and cars even before the manufacturers set out to design these products. The concept of a global village has taken its toll on our children. We live with true villagers, the offensive kind. Pupils are pupils no matter the category of school they attend, be it public or private.

If your child has not known at the time of reading this line that he is going to school to help himself and in turn the society, then I entreat you to pull him out and find him a grave. Some children think going to school is, like we say in Ghana, " a mere formality". Government is playing its part, teachers are breaking down the approved content into teachable bits, parents are being responsible as expected, and children are taking all for granted. We normally think that some children are academically talented and others are just not required to be in school. Educational practice believes this but I think that every individual is academically talented. Let me tell you a story.

***My nephew attended six different schools before completing JHS simply because he was daft or a dunce. He went to three private schools including SOS, Asiakwa, and three public schools in four towns. We blamed the teachers. When the mother had to leave home for residence at the workplace she made him go to a boarding school. And that was the beginning of his academic excellence. He is now in SHS2. ***

My sister and I tried finding reasons for his exceptional academic performance in the new school. We had to do that because he was just not getting enough of his books when he came home and sometimes his proprietress did not want him to come home when school vacated. Our findings were hypothetic but I seem to be believing them now, thus considering them here.

1. We found out, as you know to be the norm, that learning was structured and he had to adhere to it. While he was with us, he only saw his books in the mornings. I never heard him talk about homework or any thing of that kind.

2. There was no time to waste on entertainment. Only on Saturdays was he allowed an hour of guided entertainment. Before this time he could go out and bring in friends, each with a favourite movie in hand to watch.

3. No home chores to distract him. In our house he had no chores but his grandmother could call him like a hundred times to do something for her.

4. He could not go out and come back after 10pm. He was the free-range type of a human being and he grazed wherever there was foliage. In the new school, with time apportioned and strictly made to be followed, he could not get out of the school premises without permission.

5. There was the motivation, extrinsically, from friends to learn. Every animal needs some level of motivation to accomplish a task. Where it lacks, success also lacks.

I am not dwelling on the points above but they should open our eyes and minds to some of the distractions our children and we cause. When it comes to education we should not consider dynamism in life. What worked to produce good and reliable citizens in the immediate past must be maintained. With the observance of human rights and our lack of understanding of it we are sinking our society. We no longer tell children what they should do but what they want to do. I would not like to go into that because it all boils down to the issue of parenting and politics.

Pupils have it at the back of their minds that some subjects are inordinately difficult. This leads to the unfashionable thinking that if a subject is difficult then it is a good thing to stay away from it so you will have your skull intact. This explains why some of us, while in our formative years, stayed away from Mathematics and Science and it is now taking us on a distasteful ride. It is so because we are afraid to think. Call it phronemophobia. We are quick to condemn teachers for their wrong approaches to these subjects. The amazing thing about teachers and their profession is that they never get any thing right while the learner is always right because if they knew any thing they would not come for lessons.

There is also the other side to the point above; some subjects are too cheap to waste your time on them. Consider Social Studies. Every learner, from primary school to any level where Social Studies is taught, thinks that it is not worth their time and sweat. We pick our Social Studies textbooks and notes when we are resting under the trees or when we receive visitors. A senior trainee made a comment about our attitude towards this subject and the results that kept coming at the end of each semester. A group of freshmen had gathered around the notice board trying to find our index numbers and our respective grades. One of us had forgotten the code for Social Studies so he asked and another jokingly answered that he should go to the

Principal and ask. When asked why he had forgotten the code for one out of nine subjects, he answered that Social Studies was not a subject to think about. The senior replied, "you always think Social Studies is cheap but nobody has ever had A or A+". I think none of us gave that reply the deserving analysis because we all assumed similarly. Some pupils are so good at some subjects that they leave the classroom when teachers come in. In the eyes of the other learners, it is a show of bravery and intelligence and the teachers, if they knew this behaviour, would deem it indiscipline but in reality, it is a foolish path to thread.

Another problem with our children which leads them to failure, is learned helplessness. It is a behaviour associated with constantly trying and failing. It is self-imposed. It is like saying to yourself after several attempts without success that, "I quit, I will never make it". And then you hang up your amour. It initially begins as a normal break on events but when not realised and corrected at its early stage it becomes a psychological problem which might be with one forever in their educational pursuits. It is usually caused by external factors such as the demands by a perficient teacher, a "no-nonsense" parent who has no idea about their child's development, and sometimes being in the midst of highly intelligent learners. You and I always come across such children but there is normally little we can do because they have accepted their state and are comfortable being there. These children need a great dose of counselling and a solid assurance of the elimination of the causes. But the question has always been whether or not these children will avail themselves for counselling.

Peer pressure, which has always been a cause of the downfall of the youth, is another area to look at. Peer relationships are never bad to engage in. In fact it is the cell of all relationships. A 2-year old cannot befriend a 25-year old and the reason is that there will always be conflicting desires. While the 2-year old will be pointing at sweets, the 25-year will be condemning consumption of sweets and how that is not his problem but his forthcoming end-of-semester exams. They can never be friends. Negative peer relationships have always been condemned in our studies. Like the story of my nephew, his friends had their different favourite movies to watch. As a teacher, I have advised my pupils to form study groups to help them improve their reading skills. Some children are so vulnerable that they will soon eat fresh cow dung with their friends.

It will be interesting to know that our children are becoming increasingly lazy towards learning. It is the case of having all that they require to learn but the unfortunate decision that classroom education is not the key to success. We live in a country where materialism is the sole

determiner of success and since we all want to succeed, we find ways of getting there with education promoted aside. Some of our business magnates, when they have the chance to talk, tell how they failed academically and how by being streetwise, rose to the top. It is not a bad thing to tell but these children are mentally deficient and will misunderstand the success stories. A girl once said to me she had no time to learn because she will be married off and catered for by the partner. Apprenticeship is also becoming a reason to shun formal education but they don't realise that the hairdresser now writes a mock exam. This might not be an express cause for alarm but it contributes to the lackadaisical attitude of our future leaders towards learning. Coupled with this is the fact our schools are producing graduates who can't find already cooked jobs.

PUBLIC VS PRIVATE SCHOOLS

There has been a battle, if not an uproarious debate that could, nevertheless, lead to the former, between public and private schools since the advent of private schools in Ghana. And it is not only limited to Ghana, neither Africa, but every corner of the globe where public and private schools coexist. Stakeholders in public school education always lose out to the advocates of private school education. As a teacher I have had to endure the fury of some parents who are better off childless because they have no knowledge of childrearing, I think. I have, for instance, read about the feelings of some parents in the USA whose joy in parenting is muddled when the issue of private versus public schools comes up.

It is not just emotions that are made to dwindle but the financial standing, love for children's future, sense of judgement and or selection of quality, are all vilified. Isn't it unfair to be ridiculed by someone somewhere because he thinks the choices you make concerning your own child's education are worthless? People must learn to mind their own business and respect the decisions of their neighbours. What works best for me might never come your way and even if it does, you might not be able to use it to its full capacity. If you happened to be taught in a private school, I tilt my hat in your honour, and if you, like me, went to a public school, let's find our place on the ground and be re-educated by our erudite brothers and sisters.

Private schooling has come to stay and it can never be described as a "necessary evil". Private schools are doing a lot more than public schools in the following and more areas:

1. They take up the excess from public schools. As public school teachers unashamedly fight government over higher-than-normal class sizes, private schools hang around to rescue such children who might never be impacted in public schools.

2. They take up the 'chaff' from public schools. Public schools are in the business of perfecting learners, but private schools, which are profiteering, but justifiably so now and always, accept those children rejected by the former and do the real perfect job on them.

3. Admitting children not riped for public school education. Public schools did not and are not admitting children until they are four years old. Private schools will soon accept to nurse foetuses so pregnant mothers will have enough time for business.

Questions in the minds of the Ghanaian parent that lead to this virtual battle include the following:

1. Why are private schools, with less qualified*, underpaid teachers, able to score higher marks in exams?

2. Why can't our children in public schools speak English language as fluently as those in private schools?

3. Why do children in private schools look more 'educated' than those in public schools?

There are many questions but the above are the basic and frequently asked. You are not wrong in your thoughts if you also ask such and more questions as regards the topic. Let me draw your attention to the fact that life is a cause of itself and a reaction to itself. In other words, there is a reason for every occurrence on earth. Cause and effect. Why private schools are outperforming public schools or the vice versa, which most of us believe is never the case, can only be answered by individual parents. Trust me. If your child is not performing in a public school, blame it all on your one self and if he is doing great in a private school, pat your one self on the shoulder.

Honestly, I have not come across a good teacher who did so much work on me that I passed my exams without learning what they taught me. In the same vein, I am not a teacher good enough to teach your child that he will pass his exams without learning what I teach him. I have heard parents and education officers talk about how effectively private school authorities administer their schools. It is not what I believe to be responsible for their excellence. The things we think make private schools excel are actually not what they are. Again, it is my opinion.

Parents have a responsibility to educate their children and a right to choose which category of school to send them to. Exercising this right is a product of a long, careful, painful, and a not-too-distant-in-the-future regretful decision for some parents. For some it is an oath sworn to never see their children in a public school. Others do it because they are finely ground products of private schooling and so the tradition must go on. Why will a parent decide to pay fees twice his salary for one term? And what sense does it make for a peasant farmer to pay fees same as the police officer? How would you refer to a rice seller who withdraws her child from a public school and enrols him in a private school and the child has to be sent home daily for nonpayment of fees? It all has to do with good intentions, a firmer grip on life and a better reason and place to die.

Objectively, and with what we hear and see about how private schools are outperforming public schools, I would suggest that we close down all public schools. But with an educated approach, I would suggest that whoever wants to see both public and private schools pull parity, must drive into the ears of parents to stop disregarding public school education. I am saying here that parents are totally responsible for the poor performance of public schools in that they 'bewitch' their children in public schools. With government being a concerned pretender and teachers proverbially doing their best in the provision of education, it is up to the individual parent to raise the stakes by being the absolute beneficiary of their children's education.

I have had the chance of seeing and interacting with parents whose children, while in public schools, could not or did not provide learning materials but when they sent them to private schools, did more than enough to help. What comes to mind is that public school education is meant for the poor parent, the parent who has no dreams for their children and the parent who has never in anyway benefitted from education. But that should not be it. I am a product of public school education - thoroughly bred and I am proud my parents took me there. What made me go through successfully was the dream my parents had for me and themselves and what I came to accept when I realised I wanted to be like my older siblings. As I grew older, my home also gradually grew educogenic with the help of some teachers and siblings. My father never asked me to learn but his army-retired athletic body, dipping its hand in its supper on our black-gravelled compound, was more than an order to take my books to learn.

On September 22, 2014, I had a talk with a young father who had to pay close to GH¢1000 as school fees for his two children aged four and two. In addition to that amount was GH¢100 for

books. He was just lamenting as though there was going to be a tsunami in his bedroom if he did not pay. To me it was a great waste of money but he was proud of the fact that his two-year old girl's school fees for a term could pay someone else's fees at the university. Then came another father who paid GH¢30 a term at a public JHS, despite government's free education, and how high his daughter flew in the 2014 BECE. The first father told me about an estate developer who paid his child's fees in one of the forbidden currencies in an international school and how the child made the family flag fly at half mast when the 2014 BECE results were released. I'm confused here but all I am saying is that the school your child attends has nothing to do with his academic performance if you, the parent, do not fix yourself in his educational pursuits.

These days some parents are of the view that private schools are good foundation layers and public schools are good bricklayers. It sounds trite but to some extent I DO believe it. There is also this commonplace observation that public JHS pupils outperform their counterparts from private JHS when they meet in SHS. Whether or not you believe it will not change the facts. Does that mean the public school system has a secret recipe that is ugsome and unnerving at the preparation stage? If yes, why is that? Our children from private schools are just good when it comes to speaking English language and the opposite is the clear truth of public school children. Ask them to write the same words they speak and private school pupils become toddlers tasked to crack a tortoise shell. Does it mean the private school system is being praised undeservingly?

What actually makes private school pupils perform or appear to be performing has never been clear to me. I assume that public school education is reserved for the poor while private school education is for the wealthy. Being poor means being deprived of the basic needs of life which in turn ruins access to formal education. So a family that cannot provide a ladleful of rice for its little ones in the morning will not be able to buy an exercise book for them. A homeless family cannot clothe its offspring for school. Regardless, these children go to school because classrooms ought to be filled. These are the children who are burdened with home chores extending to child labour. They sell pure water on our streets, look for drowning currency coins and household chattels in the gutters, search for e-waste and discarded metals, in order to eat.

A rich man's child has no worries. What to eat and wear, where and how to sleep, are not thought of because they are all available to them as air is to the nose no matter the size of the nostrils. What then hinders their access to good education, if not blockheadism? I do not mean

to say that wealth is a determiner of academic achievements but it plays a major role. If you believe a sound mind lives in a sound body and that soundness of body is a fruit of the availability of the basic needs of life, then trust me, wealth determines one's academic success. A rich man's child learns in a conducive atmosphere both in school and at home. Compare my school which is under trees to one of the renowned private schools in Accra and pass your own unbiased judgement. Going a step further, rich parents do not only know the importance of education but they have also had the experience and attribute their current status to education. So why will they not keep the tradition?

Public schools are as they are because parents have left their children to the mercy of successive good-for-nothing governments. Private schools, on the other hand, have integrated parents in their day-to-day administration, hence their ostensible impact. That is the basic difference between the two and it is responsible for the good and bad grades we are getting from our future leaders. Are we ready for a change? Are we prepared to prune our needs to make education the topmost priority? It's about time we ended our educational segregation by placing children in any school and giving them just not the support but the needed and necessary support. If an SHS leaver can teach a pupil to pass distinctly in BECE, why can't the teacher, trained by UCC or UEW, teach your child to do same?

The children learning under trees in my school will be made to write the same exams on the same day at the same clock time as the children in Silickon Valli International school at the Flagstaff House. Wherein lies the sense to expect the same level of output from both schools? Let the parent who wishes well for his child not believe in any category of school to be superior to the other but heavily invest in the child's education.

CONCLUSION

We, parents, have a greater responsibility in the education of our children because governments and teachers will stand aloof and tell us to do our bits. Our children will also not see the need for education until a time such as they will be misfits. So whenever you think your child is not getting enough, please be up and man affairs.

I have not laid the blame at the doorstep of anyone. I have opened our eyes to what I have observed to be the cause of our educational decadence and what we need to do as governments, teachers, parents and students, to keep what is left and strengthen it.

Education is the only way to bail us out of our current crises. The prayers we say will go unanswered and the gods to whom we pray will laugh at us because they have already provided a painless catholicon for our economy - education. Nothing hurts as putting your political hope in a government and not getting your bargain in return. Governments will always toy with our education because they know an educated mind will be troublesome to them. They will keep us uneducated so we will believe some dwarfs are responsible for the depreciation of the Cedi. They will blur our minds so we will believe them when they say charging our mobile phones is the reason for our power crisis.

Written by Stephen Ofosu

Email: stephenyofosu@yahoo.com