Some of the reasons why the boarding component in our state-assisted senior high schools must be removed. And
Now can we begin to have a calm national conversation?
Ghana has never been able to afford boarding as a major component of its state-owned education system, we cannot afford it, and not wanting to admit this puts us in some danger.
Since state-owned education was introduced over a thousand years ago in some countries, no nation on earth, has considered boarding as a necessary component of it.
That fact covers the most populous, the richest, and the most powerful nations on our planet: like China, Japan, US, and Russia (former USSR) In those countries and almost everywhere else, SECONDARY EDUCATION COVERS BETWEEN 90% AND 95% OF THE POPULATION, IT IS DAY, and IT IS FREE.
Apart from the confusion they have created around the issue by calling boarding secondaries “public schools” while they run them as private institutions, the British who introduced the model to us never attempted to use it for their state-owned system. (Please check this out on Google, Wikipedia, or the current UK High commissioner in Accra.)
Even for us, the British had meant boarding as a temporary measure to create a local nucleus to help them run the Gold Coast as a colonial space.
It was quite unfortunate that after independence, we not only kept boarding as part of the national educational system, but also allowed it to expand to its current unmanageable levels.
We can be bold enough to say that until the current government rolled out the free SHS program, state assistance covered less than 30% of Ghana children. The remaining 70% or so were just abandoned in the rural and urban poor areas.
It was reckless of this country’s professional and mercantile elite to insist that the Ghanaian state undertook to board and feed their children when they are most ably placed to take care of the physical needs of their children. It is also to be noted that at this stage in their lives young people eat like rabbits. That was the original African state capture!
In some or most of the co-ed institutions the girls are shared among the headmasters and the male teaching staff as special stables for their own private use.
Over the last several weeks, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, has been struggling to get us to see that currently our boarding schools are now also sites that threaten the health of our young people.
In any group of healthy boys and girls, the SHS years are about personal biology and the exploration of different sexualities. Especially where the environment is encouraging. So boarding schools have always been spaces for the growth of homosexuality. (It is to be noted that I’m not against any sexual preferences, because I don’t consider myself competent or knowledgeable enough to judge.)
But it is evident of the most dangerous form of hypocrisy to insist that being gay is evil, irreligious, untraditional etc., while at the same time, we worship boarding schools as the only spaces where we can get our own and other people’s children educated properly. Worse, we try and hold ALL our governments, past and present, to ransom over this issue.
What kind of people are we?
P.S. Against this background, the idea that some religious bodies have been in conversation with governments about the possibility of taking back the management of their former missionary schools is the most confused, impracticable, backward-looking notion to enter the debate.
Source: Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo (Writer, educationist)
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The need to depoliticize free SHS and pick ideas from all stakeholders to arrive at what is best and feasible cannot be over emphasized. Remember that once upon the time even the universities were free, students were rather receiving stipends. Removing the subsidies in the universities was tag of war between governments and students. Today, fees are being paid in the universities but this has not prevented increased admissions. Even it has been possible to establish and run full fee paying private universities. Why have we saddled ourselves with this free boarding SHS again. Which government will have enough toughness to reverse this situation. Two steps forward, three steps backward ''' Ghana education is on the agbadza dance!!!
@Ntim,Napo has challenged your former president and his cronies for debate.What are they afraid of?He's one of the best education ministers in our time.Counsel your former president to make sense when he speaks.
I agree with the learned Prof 100%. I am a product of boarding school education but I think in the national interest boarding education should be scrapped. community schools are cheap to run and its also very effective. Parents also have the opportunity to monitor the children on a daily basis and play their God given roles well. All over the world as rightly stated by the learned Prof. public schools are rather day while the private once are boarding. If you are excessively rich and want others to train your kids for you then offcourse you take your children to boarding schools. nobody should make a mistake and think that this is an attack on free SHS. I strongly believe the free SHS policy will be better of with community day schools. All the extra money used to feed the children in the morning and evening can be used to equip the community schools to ensure they all have the same level of equipment to deliver quality education. The argument of fostering ethnic integration with a boarding schools is a good one but I dare say we have other means of achieving that. For example, inter ethnic marriages is on the rise and must be encouraged, at the universities students get the opportunity to interact and mix with other students with different ethnic backgrounds. On the issue of attending the best schools in cape coast raised by other people, I even think those schools (Mfanstepim, Adisadel, Gey Hey, Presec, Prempeh, Opoku ware) should be privatized or made autonomous. These are the ivy blues of the country and have the potential to rake in huge foreign exchange earnings for the country. We are surrounded by francophone countries who are eager to learn English. Now English is the official scientific language and every non speaking country is making frantic effort to equip their youth to master English. We have a huge competitive and the earlier we take advantage of it the better. These schools have the potential of attracting students from Nigeria, Ivory coast, Senegal etc to pay fees. Money accrued can be used to expand access and provide better community schools for the locals. Off course Ghanaian students can also attend but must pay competitive fees.
Dear Prof, I believe and am rest assured that this time we can have calm national conversation and discourse without any turbulent of Insults. The babies with sharp teeth are dulled in Opposition and the few messing up sometimes in Parliament.Ican say with certainty the air is crystal clean for informed discourse.
Ahhh auntie Ama,you are bad ooo. I know what you are up to, and it simple because you want to help your people (indigens of capecoast) to get enrolment to the prestigious schools around them,yes it is nice way to prevent non indigens from attending those schools. Because how can someone from tema or kumasi attends these elites schools, if the government decided to deboardinise all public schools. Really,are you for real or it's just a prank.
I am a product of the boarding secondary school, & it did a lot of good service to me. I can confidently say, I am what I am today because of the boarding culture I was exposed to during my secondary and 6th form education in Ghana. All my children have passed through the same culture, and have achieved competitive advantage from that exposure.
Why didn't you ***barred word*** the boarding school system when you had the opportunity to become the Secretary of Education under the PNDC in 1982. It is a system that has worked for us as a country and need to continue. From you argument it is obvious that you are against the Free SHS. This is the agenda of the NDC and based on your background and political lineage, you are expected to propagate that ideology but it will not work. Majority of Ghanaians have embraced the Free SHS and it has come to stay.
Interesting Article, Unsustainable, unaffordable however very convenient for students, decreases congestion on the roads and keep students focused. Either way, like on every issue, there are ups and downs to it. We have chosen this path however unsustainable, I don't see it changing in the near future.
AMA you are against free SHS and I expect NAPO to insult you. You are NDC and will expect Nana to refer you to The Special prosecutor immediately.NPP all the wayWhen NANA comes from his unproductive tour you will see
It is true boarding is expensive but to me personally there are several benefits of having a boarding school system. For one, looking at how our second cycle schools are structured and situated, taking boarding out of the school system means several people who come from rural areas would be deprived of the quality that is offered in some of the "elite" school. For another thing, the boarding school system instil discipline in the students. Having to wake up at specify time and having an automatic schedule for the day, such as when to go for dinning, when to wash etc., all this helps and build the students for the future. Let not forget, that we are as a nation are not living "harmoniously" as we think we are. Bringing people from different background together, as we have in the boarding system. There are several more benefit which I wouldn't like to eneumerate here, but the boarding system I think is one of the finest thing we have. What we have to consider and what I was always of the view was that, looking at our needs as a nation and the level of development that we have, the free SHS could have been done in another way. Think about it, would parent not have fed their children if they were at home and not in school? The boarding component that the government claim is part of the Free SHS is what I don't understand. All other fees could have been absorbed by the Government and the feeding part, which I think threaten the policy taken care by parents. It is a good debate the professor has broached, however comparing it to some of the well advanced countries and making a point out of it is neither here nor there. We as a people are different, and what works in some of these advanced countries would not work for us. For instance, as a student abroad, my University(in fact there are no accommodation on campus) is about 20 minutes drive from where I live. With good roads and public transport system, commuting to campus and back home does not become a hurdle. Do we have same in Ghana as it stands? We can copy but we have to adapt what we copy to suit our system and culture. The debate has just commenced...