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“When they want to get you cajoled and controlled for the rest of your life, they get you thinking like them. And they can get you thinking like them when they structure your education system to work to their dictates. That is the tricks of the bourgeoisie.”
A computerized system was put in place to get rid of the manual manipulation which disadvantaged weak/less privileged but brilliant students from rural Ghana. The system has run for 10 years today and counting. In 2019 when we should be improving the technology to benefit the majority of the people (less privileged), we have decided to establish yet another parallel manual system for PROTOCOL admission. This system has been running counter to the established computerized system. In the end , the system has jammed up, parents and students have become confused and have to now find space on their own to get this resolved. The govt put up another system at the Black Star Square to resolve this challenge under the supervision of the ministry of education. This process has caused the stampede on Monday, 16th September 2019, where students and parents collapsed and were attended to by the paramedics at the Ghana Ambulance Service. All the above happened in the full glare of the general public and in the presence of almost all the major media houses in Ghana.
In the midst of this confusion and the expectation of the Ghanaian for a solution or at least an assurance from the govt and the relevant agencies, the Minister of Education, Hon Mathew Opoku Prempeh who is supposed to bear the ultimate responsibility as far as the outcomes of programs and policies of education in Ghana is concerned, rushed to a media house, without having to personally visit the scene, makes unfounded allegations against the Former President and the NDC, and in the end insulted the sensibilities of parents and the Ghanaian public. He claimed that the stampede and the frustration being expressed by parents and students were all staged to cause disaffection for the govt. And that Former President Mahama and the NDC were those bused those students and parents there to execute a political agenda.
If the minister responsible for education in a country like Ghana, cannot put out a simple statement (No matter the genuineness of its content or otherwise), just to cause the parent and students to be reassured and have hope that their frustrations won’t go in vain, and you have young men and women in Ghana who will go on air or on their social media handles to defend this, then there is a fundamental problem of the thinking or mindset of the Ghanaian, with all due respect.
Governance takes more than being right at all times and taking the glory for it; it also includes being wrong and taking the responsibility for same. If the GES and it’s agents cannot be called to answer as to why they are running a parallel manual system (PROTOCOL) which seeks to hack the existing computerized system and hence this mess, which is criminal if it’s not sanctioned by the govt, then we have a problem as a people. And Minister can conveniently accuse parents and pupils of staging their frustrations and above all accuse Former President Mahama and the NDC of busing those parents and students there to sabotage the govt, then, nobody will ever be punished for the mess in the system except the politician who takes all the glory and all the blames for the rights and wrongs respectively.
The Ghanaian Youth must rise to the occasion. We ain’t the future leaders as they always say to keep postponing our progress, we are today’s leaders. Rise up and get the system working because whatever decision they take today would have its consequences chocking the system tomorrow when it will be our turn to lead. When they want to control you forever, they first get you thinking like them and that will set the tone for the lost of your real identity.
Arise for your country! Fight until you get it right! We deserve better than blame games.
By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese (0244198031)
Comment *It is sicking to see a government bent on winning elections on the back of a porous and collapsed education sector. I weep for mother Ghana.