Nkrumah's Nightmare: Educational Failures at Ghana's Jubilee

Photo Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukebosman/218000148/ Kindergarten children play at the Rev. Alex Jones Memorial Methodist School in Nkanfoa, Ghana.

In 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the key force for Ghana's liberation. A man of courage and great motivation, he led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule in March 1957 and became the Prime Minister that same year. Nkrumah told his nation in a 1957 radio broadcast that Ghana's progress will be measured "by the number of children in school." He saw a destiny for Ghana's schoolchildren, but today after 50 years of independence, his dream is still that: an aspiration.

What has happened to Ghana's education system? Why does it continue to halt the development of less wealthy children? In today's Ghana, a child's education is almost mapped out at birth. A child who is born in the urban south of the country is likely to receive a first-rate level of education. Students' chances are even better if they can afford to attend a fee-paying school. If they cannot afford to pay fees, they can attend a school with free tuition, though they still have to pay for their own text books and stationery. In such schools, they will receive a far lower standard of education; for example, class sizes may well exceed 100 students, whereas their wealthier counterparts learn in groups of about 20. Therefore, the fears of Ghanaian youth are understandable as students struggle to excel within an unstable system.

Students' education is determined primarily by their own financial resources, rather than assistance from the Ghanaian government. In the more distressing cases, children work on the side roads of Accra during the busy nights and weekends, trying to earn money to pay for their textbooks and uniforms. Kofi Manu of Ashiaman Basic School sells bottles of water in the mornings and after school in order to make money to buy lunch and pay for his school uniform and stationery. His parents have little money to give him, since they must also provide for their other children. Many of these children will never learn more than how to read, write, and understand basic arithmetic despite all their strain to achieve something greater.

The poor quality of earlier education for economically disadvantaged students creates a vicious cycle of events within the education system. Since there is no free secondary education, only those who have the financial means to attend quality secondary schools can climb higher within the social structure, while those who can only attend lower-rate secondary schools often leave the educational system with inadequate skills. This is mainly seen in the agricultural and rural north, where wages are often less than in the commercial south, and students with low skill levels can only find menial jobs. As a result, the rich usually become richer and the poor only become poorer.

Certainly, not all students face these difficulties-middle and upper class families can afford to send their children to better schools. Matilda Khartey, a schoolteacher in Ghana, estimates that at least 20 percent of Ghanaian children receive a high quality of education; at least three secondary schools offer the international baccalaureate system to older students. These students can then apply to the high-status universities of Ghana, such as the University of Ghana or the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. A small number of Ghanaian students also go abroad to universities in England and America. To some extent, Ghana is producing intellectuals. However, when 31.4 percent of Ghanaians live below the poverty line, according to Oxfam International, a large number of children are left to fend for themselves.

But what is the government doing about this? Ironically, for some Ghanaians, the March 2007 Independence Day celebration has become emblematic of neglectful administrative attitudes towards education. Instead of funding areas of underdevelopment to improve the lives of its people, many of whom lack adequate food and healthcare, the Ghanaian government allocated $20 million to the independence celebrations, according to the BBC. A Ghanaian student told me that her younger sister stayed home for nearly a month because the school teachers were on strike over their small salaries. ""I couldn't believe that our government could afford to spend $20 million on March 6th," she said. "Don't get me wrong, it is a big event, but how do we expect the next generation to better our country if we can't afford to give them a good education?"

The Ghanaian government has tried to overcome key problems within the education system. In 2006, Khartey said, the government of Ghana made education at the elementary level free for all in order to fulfill the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) by the year 2020. This program has increased the number of children in schools, but it has also caused negative repercussions in the system. The number of teachers has not increased alongside the growing student attendance, so classroom crowding has increased and the quality of education has plummeted. The government still has not dealt with poverty-stricken families who cannot afford stationery and uniforms for their children to attend school, even if tuition is free. There have been some progressive changes, like the 2006 Ghana School Feeding Programme, which gives students the incentive to attend class since they know they will receive a meal. Yet for the most part the system is ill-suited to many students' and teachers' needs.

Although many Ghanaians feel the system is failing them, they have a deep hope that times will change and that the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's vision will someday become a reality. But their hopes will only materialise if the government is willing to overhaul a system governed by self-perpetuating inequalities by making education free on all levels, giving incentives to all teachers to teach their students, and inputting greater investment into a desperately needy system.