Education, the Ghanaian Dream and Renaissance

Our education mission and curriculum are the antidotes to poverty; disease and various other societal obstacles depriving the average free citizen of realising a dignified life on Ghanaland – thus service, first and foremost, to God and ancestors duly; family and enterprise; district; province and Republic to which distinctive duties are owed.

The Ghanaian Dream is to be an erudite moral administrator of your home and an industrious law-abiding honourable of public service, or free trade; a proven catalyst of district development; an accomplished statesman or, and, craftsman to the province, and above all, a distinguished architect of the Republic.

And the Ghanaian Renaissance is a full expression of our cultural aesthetics in beautifying our public institutions and private enterprises, a sort of, nationalist outrage in pride of the Republic, crystallising the diverse cultures of each nation-state; tribe and clan involved.

It is the paramount responsibility of Government, and a socioeconomic right of the citizens, to ensure quality education, at whatever cost necessary, is provided to all minorities, wherever they may find themselves on our map without regard to their individual social circumstances.

The quality of indigenous scholarship and excellence of educational institutions ought to be a great source of national pride; a worthy continental export and our rightful claim to global fame.

To each Province a deluxe primary and secondary centre of scholarship, culturally aesthetic – a mix of indigenous ancient architecture and modern technology in structure – is due ideally in every Provincial capital, each furnished with a public library; resident hall/halls; a banquet hall and private museum; athletic facilities; theatre hall/debate court and science and technology labs.

The government must make provincial funds and bursaries, at secondary school level education, available to minorities (youth fellows) proven exceptional in academia; sports and drama or theatre.

Centres of Scholarship should be separated, administratively, from institutions of dogma such as traditional shrines/temples; mosques or churches. The curriculum should also include, at a conclusion of secondary school education, obligatory service to the Republic or free market as a prelude to University Studies.

At a period in time when G. H. T. Lyall inaugurated the Masonic Club in 1874, the Good Templars – founded by the General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission and Commanding Officer of the Castle garrison with the support of J. P. Brown, Lodge Deputy Grand Chief Templar – established in 1877 and the Odd-fellows established 1880, the Mfantsi Amanbuhu Fekuw (Fante National Political Society), however, was established in Cape Coast, Central Province, Gold Coast 1889 to deliberately to revive African culture – music; language; fashion and names.

A legal colossus, distinguished reformist and publisher who hailed from the Central Province, as well as a pioneer of the Fante National Political Society, John M. Sarbah joined the Fante Public School Company, a missionary enterprise, which in 1903, founded the Mfantsi National Education Fund which raised funds for the establishment, in 1905, of the Mfantsipim Secondary School.

He published the Fante Customary Laws (1897) and the Fante National Constitution (1906). J. M. Sarbah also demonstrated the principle of Good Citizenship by personally setting up a scholarship for students and staff members.

It is through the culture and values of these institutions that our Republic could direct the Ghanaian society toward a meritocracy – equal opportunity for all citizens and abundant reward for ambition with an emphasis on individual freedom and national unity.

There is, therefore, an urgent need, as bluntly expressed by the Gold Coast Aborigines Protection Society in 1902, for educated Ghanaian citizens and not westernised natives in crafting, on the basis of Ghanaian exceptionalism, indigenous institutions with internationally acceptable standards.

The dilemma Ghanaian citizens face is between leaving or remaining in the West African Education Council.

In this era of enlightenment, we must devise a national doctrine and commit our executive to a clear set of ideals and values requiring noble builders to execute.

I cannot emphasise enough, this is Ghana’s Space Generation. The generation of rationalism; freedom of thought and enquiry.

Columnist: Vincent Letsa Kobla Djokoto