History, Geography et al – Come back!
I found the end of 2025 Ghana Statistical Services’ figures on Ghana’s demography interesting.
For an estimated 35 million Ghanaians, the median age, that is, the age at which the population can be divided roughly into two halves, is about 21.3-22.2 years.
This means Ghana has a very young population, with 50 per cent over 21.5 years old, and 50 per cent below 21.5 years. In effect, Ghana has half of its population dependent on school age below 22 years.
Meanwhile, Ghanaians over 60 years (mainly retirees) constitute 6.2 per cent, which translates into roughly two million of the 35 million.
Furthermore, the percentage of Ghanaians born before 1982 is roughly 20 per cent.
In effect, Ghanaians born on January 1, 1982, constitute about 80 per cent of the population, that is, 28 million. So, why this lesson in Statistics?
Distortions/untruths
The gentleman who produced the first English Language dictionary, in 1876, Dr Samuel Johnson, said this about Education:
“The supreme end of Education is expert discernment in all things; the power to tell the good from the bad, and the genuine from the counterfeit; but above all, to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.”
When President Bill Clinton became president of the USA in 1994, he was asked by a journalist what his priority was.
“Education, Education, Education” was his answer.
Incidentally, the same question to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher years earlier had elicited the same response.
The United Kingdom and the USA are two countries with some of the most educated citizens in the world, and yet education continues to remain a top priority for national development.
Not surprisingly, teachers are some of the most respected members of such societies, on account of their role as educators.
Correspondingly, they are very well remunerated. Why are our teachers so poorly paid? Authorities, please pay them well!
History, Civics, Geography, Hygiene
Unfortunately, the observation among my generation, and I hope we are wrong, is that learning now appears to target examinations, and not knowledge.
It is not for nothing that the certificate we had after five years in secondary school was called the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level).
For many, the quality of this in the 1960s-1970s was enough to make it in life.
An additional two years of preparation for the university gave one the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level).
Indeed, it is common knowledge that many policymakers and “big-men/women” who champion the current SSS system, ranging between 2.5-4 years, send their children to private schools where the “O” and “A” Levels are done, for easy entry into UK universities.
In previous write-ups, I have advocated the return of subjects like History, Geography, Civics and Hygiene into our educational curriculum.
With 80 per cent of Ghanaians born on January 1, 1982, 28 million of the 35 million Ghanaians are less than 44 years old.
Many people I have chatted with say they neither listen to the news on the radio nor watch TV. Why?
They simply cannot stand the paucity of knowledge, distortions and untruths in the form of opinions vehemently inflicted as facts.
The German coach of the Black Stars from 1991 to 1993, Otto Pfister, was reported to have said that he arrived in Ghana thinking he was the only coach for the Black Stars, but soon realised there were 25 million coaches (Ghana’s population) because of the intense passion for football.
What he meant in effect was that everyone was a critic and that we are too hard on ourselves.
Unfortunately, as a country, we do not write as much as we criticise what is written.
We seem to delight in talking more than writing. Partly because of the paucity of books written by Ghanaians on our history and partly because reading as a culture is dying. Most of what people say is hearsay and oral literature, with all the distortions as news travels.
In our secondary school days in the mid-1960s into the early 1970s, we read history books written by Prof. Adu Boahen and Mr FK Buah, then headmaster of Tema Secondary School.
With these books, we learnt about the Gold Coast in the 18th century, and later, how the independence struggle started, with the return home of our soldiers who fought in the Second World War as members of the Royal West African Force, till independence and its immediate aftermath.
Later, Prof. Addo-Fenning was said to have joined the two mentioned.
Since then, there appears to have been a long drought in authors writing on the history of Ghana.
When I asked my Master’s degree students the last time they read a storybook and the title, they struggled to tell me.
Some confessed they had not read a storybook for a long time!
As little Young Pioneers growing up before the 1966 coup, which overthrew Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, we were so imbued with a spirit of patriotism; it was Ghana first in everything.
So, I find it rather disturbing and sad the profanity with which Ghanaians talk about Ghana.
Discussion
My generation, maybe conservatively, believes that the “O” and “A” Level, which gave us a more broad-based education and knowledge, must come back sooner or later.
The fact that policymakers themselves send their children to expensive private schools reinforces our belief.
Knowledge acquisition aside, the minimum of five years we spent in secondary school resulted in bonds of friendship, loyalty and brotherhood/sisterhood for life.
With the current system of 2.5-4 years, classmates shockingly claim they do not know one another.
My generation, thus, finds the present hyping of myopic tribalism very disturbing.
It certainly is a recipe for Ghana’s disintegration, which should be the last thing any Ghanaian should wish for Ghana.
Until we go back to the basics of “O” and “A” Levels, History, Geography, Civics and Hygiene, among others, must come back into our curricula.
Historians, please write our history as Prof. Adu-Boahen and Mr FK Buah did.
If we do not know our history, facts will be distorted at best and self-serving/seeking lies told at worst, for reasons other than reasoning/logic.
Brainpower wasted on selfish tribalism should be invested in solving the canker of galamsey, schools under trees and poverty reduction.
Leadership, lead by example/integrity/humility! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association
Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chairman, Family Health University, Accra.
E-mail:
