The WAEC challenge for the 21st century; Exams for transforming a developing country through project based education
There’s a clear causal relationship between a “Fixed mindset” and poverty. Conversely a “Growth mindset” nurtures robust thinking that propels people and nations to push themselves beyond their comfort zones, to persist and produce for their own needs, and prosper as aresult.
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The difference between poor nations and the rich ones are embodied in their respective states of mind.
The poor mindset tends to be passive, settles in, blends in, sinks into depravity without reflection; it stifles itself by the false notion that it is impossible to change for the better, and that it is fine for things to stay the same even if those things had long outlived their usefulness.
The growth mindset, however, is visionary, adventurous, dynamic, and visibly resourceful. And that is exactly how education in the rich nations tend to be constituted to raise the youth to be thinkers of a high caliber and to be adventurers who explore, create new knowledge, produce, and transform the world when necessary.
Preparation for adventure
Looking back from my university years in the U.S. as a student from Africa – I recall the excitement with which some American mates – with interests in Marine Science, Oceanography, Photography, etc – flew to Hawaii during the summer vacations to scuba dive in the Pacific Ocean. Before embarking on such adventures, they took courses in scuba diving and equipment, subaquatic photography, and so on. In other words, they learned new skills appropriate for the adventure.
On their return, they displayed and presented their findings on the campus with great pride. When we - the students from Africa - saw the pictures of the coral reefs, plants, animals, and curious objects in the habitat on the deep seas, we were awed by the courage of our American contemporaries.
In an imaginary scenario, we could foresee – for instance - the disappointment of a Ghanaian father or uncle – on the coastal fringes - on seeing pictures of a son or nephew in the sea swimming lustily alongside fishes and all manner of oceanic creatures. One could almost hear him scold the boy’s mother in anger, “Talk to that silly boy of yours; and warn him that the whole family is depending on him. If we had wanted him to be a fisherman (pofo nyi), we’d have fetched him a canoe right here at the lagoon (baka ano)!”
Project based education creates powerful learning experiences. Skills derived from projects to which one commits proudly and meaningfully cannot be learned through leaked examination questions and answers. The credits one earns for graduation requirements instill lifelong sources of pride, expertise, and confidence through solid accomplishments.
Sit-copy-reproduce
The larger question is simply this: Is the grammar type “sit-copy-reproduce” education - and the correlated “Who/What” questions and expected “True/False”, “Yes/No” answers that support it - going to stay with us forever? It is so clear, without a shred of doubt, that that process alone neither works for everybody, nor every district, nor a developing country.
The persistent Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) failure rates in regions like the Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Central and Volta ought to make us pause. With a good many students in some districts failing in huge numbers, isn’t it time to reflect and consider other alternatives to educate our teeming youth? Though they may be failures in the so called “academic excellence” system, they are potentially and practically as bright as any other such learners worldwide, if only they could be reached and taught properly.
Year after year, the high BECE failing rates - pervading into adult life - puts the nation itself on a roller coaster of perpetual poverty driven by the lack of useful practical skills and the lack of production resulting in the very high costs of living, huge national debts, and so on.
Project based education and service learning
The nation needs to see that one doesn’t depend on leaked questions and answers for practical projects that matter, such as hands-on projects of exploration and purpose. One pinches answers for mundane things forced on people without a direction, people who have not been taught well, people unprepared for academic type exams, people without qualified teachers and appropriate teaching and learning materials, people without access to better schools in their districts. What does one expect from a person whose back had been pinned to the wall, a person without a choice except for the narrow beaten paths?
In an earlier column, “Avoiding the mis-education of Ghana’s youth”, I noted that “the combinations of the active brain and hands are the best teaches. By reflecting on action, that culture arrives at better decisions to which people commit naturally, with enthusiasm”.
The nation’s educators need to now recognise the risks of complacency and use the occasion for a candid appraisal. The youth need to be supported to get up from their knees, stand tall, and begin to learn to add practical value to Ghana’s God given resources. The poverty disease can be eliminated.
It is time for the nation’s policy makers to come back to earth, and extract meaning out of the chaos. Project based education and service learning ought to serve as the pivots on which meaningful education must evolve; short of that, the unfortunate youth are being toyed with as victims of adult ineptitude!
[Email: anishaffar@gmail.com]