FADA SERIES, EPISODE 1; Is Tertiary Education in Ghana now for the Rich only?

By: Daniel Arkoh Fenyi

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Education is a very important element in human life and an instrumental contributory factor in achieving one’s dreams. Even to the bread seller by the street, the handkerchief seller, the cobbler and the ‘pure water’ seller, having a form of education in marketing strategies, effective communication and customer care relations can help double the meager profit they make and enable them to survive in this economically wrenching country. Also, to the one who dreams of ending up with professions like lawyer, teacher, doctor, lecturer, journalist, architecture, etc, education is a tool they cannot afford to dispense.

Education in its broad sense is seen as the process of imparting and receiving knowledge, either formally or informally. It aims at developing the skills, knowledge and character of the undergoer. Whatever dream one has in life, one must go through some form of education to achieve it, either formally or informally or both. By formal education, I mean the structured, systematic, organised form of education administered in strict adherence to the given set of laws and norms as stipulated in a well documented curriculum and syllabus as regards objectives, content and methodology. This form of education necessarily involves the teacher, the student and the institution or classroom. Tests are organised and a learner’s performance in the test determines his/her promotion to the next class or level. In Ghana, the normal trend of education is that, one goes through basic education, which lasts about six years from classes one to six. A pupil now enrolls in Junior High School which also takes about three years after which a learner is expected to sit the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organised by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) under the auspices of the Ghana Education Service (GES) - the body that controls the affairs of education from the basic to the Senior High School level. A pass in the BECE sees a pupil posted to a Senior High School (SHS) of choice under the Computerised Selection and Placement System. SHS also takes about three years after which the student is made to register and sit for the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). A student is expected to pass at least six of the subjects he studied in school in order to qualify for enrollment in any tertiary institution in Ghana. By pass, a student is expected to make an overall aggregate of thirty six (36) which means, on the average, a student is expected to get A1 to C6 in all the subjects in order to qualify for the public tertiary institutions.

Mention, however, must be made of the about thirty eight Colleges of Education and good number of Nursing Training Colleges and Polytechnics in Ghana who sometimes give opportunity to students who made grade D7 to enroll. And Also to the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) who sometimes consider such grade in enrolling students on their various distance education programmes.

Every year, thousands of students are churned out from the SHS and they all compete for the few spaces that are available in the only eight public universities in Ghana.

I, by this piece, bring to the attention of the nation how the education system in Ghana is steadily declining in quality.

I recall what happened to me in the year 2011, when, I, the son of a poor pedlar from a small village in Swedru called Otabilkrom, having graduated from Swedru Secondary School (Swesco) with an overall aggregate of eight (08) in WASSCE was denied admission to Fosu College of Education because I didn’t know anyone who could connect me or have enough money to pay my way through. How did I know the reason for the denial of my admission? We were three friends who applied. The other two had E8 and F9 in their result respectively. They suggested to me that we should go and pay bribe, but I didn’t have money so I could not go. In the end, both of my friends were picked and I was refused admission. Is that to mean that poverty denied me admission to school? If so, should that be the case? The children of the rich got admission despite their poor performance while the brilliant but poor student was refused. 

Just last year, a friend of mine enrolled in one of the Nursing Training Colleges in Ghana because though she had F9 in Mathematics and E8 in Science, she was able to pay three thousand cedis (GH¢3,000.00). If admissions to the tertiary is gradually coming down to having to pay your way through despite your grades, then how can the poor who knowing his/her poor background, kills him/herself to learn thoroughly to achieve his/her vision of enrolling in the tertiary become a useful person for himself and the community.
 

Mr. President, Ministry of Education and all authorities concerned, I implore you to make a close monition on the principals and the various authorities whose interests lie in enriching their pockets to the detriment of the brilliant students who need admission to the various tertiary institutions on merit. 

If nothing is done, I daresay that, someday in the unknown future, Ghana will only produce Nurses, teachers, bankers and other professionals, who cannot treat sicknesses, impart knowledge to students, make effective calculations and deliver effective output respectively.