| From: |
cyRil fraNce [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
RE: WEEK 2 QUESTIONS and response
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| Sent: |
May 3rd, 2009 - 11:31:48 |
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Introduction
Cyril Nii Offei France,
country Ghana.
A Youth Focal person for
development alternatives, my sphere of work transcends a confined
organizational setting; below are some organizations I’ve worked for:
Youth Realities Network
Youth Action Movement
Global Youth Action Network – Ghana
Global Youth Service Day (20007) 2008, National Lead Agency - Project
coordinator
WEEK 2 QUESTIONS and
response
I) Please tell us about the education system in your country. Do you think
education for sustainable development has been integrated
into the education system? What about informal education
(eg. camps, community workshops, museums, conferences, seminars, Open Houses, etc)?
Is there any value in integrating sustainable development into education in the
first place? Is so, what is this value?
Education in Ghana:
In Ghana,
both public and other key stakeholders such as religious and private
institutions, provide basic school education, some secondary and tertiary
education. Ghana
has been restructuring its educational system since independence. In 1987, the
junior secondary school structure was introduced by the Ministry of Education
to replace the British-adapted West African O Level and A level system. In
September 2007, government introduced the junior and senior high school system.
Through government initiative the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education
(FCUBE) was operational. This program aimed to provide basic education to all
school-age children while promoting efficiency, quality, and ensuring access.
The implementation strategy includes providing the “School Feeding Program” and
“Education for the Girl Child”. There
are regional differences in access to primary/basic school. The southern sector
of the country has greater access to primary education than the northern
sector. The three northern regions have the lowest rate of access to primary
education, the Upper East Region has a percentage of (61.9%) followed by the
Upper West Region (67.1%) (Ghana
Statistical Service, 2003). Some factors that account for the low access to
primary education in the northern regions include meager population
distribution, poverty, and deprivation. Urban areas of the county have better
access to primary education than rural areas 93.2% compared to 81.0% respectively
(Ghana Human Development report, 2007). For boys and girls, primary and junior secondary
school now junior high school, in gross enrolment ratio increased more for
girls (19.3%) and (18.1%) for boys. Although enrolment at the basic levels of
education in the country had seen significant improvement, in the sphere of
quality education due to inadequate infrastructure (ICT, and other logistics)
most facilities are over stretched (student teacher ratio, congestions in
classrooms), more qualified teachers refusing posting to rural communities.
Emphasis should not only be placed on enrolment figures but rather the quality
of product from the schools. A research conducted in schools in some districts indicated
that many children and young people where dropping out of school due to
poverty, child labour, and corporal punishment. (Centre for Research on
Improving Quality of Primary Education in Ghana). With regards to qualified
education personal northern Ghana and also the remote rural areas are
increasingly excluded. With respect to secondary education now senior high, the
national average for access to senior high school is 43.3 %, but worse for the
northern regions which average 15.5% (GHDR, 2007). Access to senior high
education in the urban area is 62.6% and 28.8% in the rural areas.
16.4% of Ghanaians are literate in English only, 2.5%
are literate in a local language only and 38.1% are literate in both English
and Ghanaian language. Implies, Ghanaians are generally more versed using the
English language for learning, than the indigenous language(s).
Besides the formal education, attempts at other types
of informal education are made to equip persons who are excluded from formal
learning. Traditional apprenticeship training accounts for some 80-90 % of all skills
development in the country (Woltjer, 2006). In addition, there is technical and
vocational education which provides apprenticeship training in state-funded
schools, an example is the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), its
training is fairly distributed across the country.
Although a new but holistic concept, education for
sustainable development over the decade, has received some attention from NGOs,
Government agencies, and higher educational institutions efforts are being made
to incorporate it into academic programmes, processes, and community outreach.
Education for sustainable development (ESD), seeks to establish
transdisciplinary educational methods and approaches to develop an apt lifelong
learning, which fosters reverence for human needs that are well-matched with
sustainable use of natural resources, environment, and planet at large. Traces
of some elements or values of ESD can be found within the Ghanaian education
system but a conscious and deliberate attempt to integrate it into our
educational system is lacking probably, as a result of Inadequate and
unavailable infrastructure to develop and integrate it across-board. For
instance there is a need for reorientation of existing educational structures
and systems (culture, social, economic, environment) at all levels to address
sustainable development, living and thinking sustainability in all spheres of
life. Integrating sustainable development into the educational systems is
imperative due to the following values it presents:
Concept of
lifelong learning: meaning education is not only about one’s immediate life
but transcends life itself and continues throughout the full span of life and
human development stages. The concept also seeks to empower everyone
irrespective of your age grouping, to make judicious decisions and further act
ethically.
Promotes and
enhances Basic Education: by
changing the trend of school curricula from the traditional form to a more
advanced and life changing form where skills, knowledge, and core values are
imparted. This will encourage perspective transformation, hence leading to
sustainable social actions.
Development and
acquisition of all-rounded skills: ESD develops concepts that encourage
change and empowers humankind to make sound and responsible decisions geared
towards a sustainable future.
Regards,
Cyril Nii Offei France
Youth Development Advocate
P.O. Box GP 18932 Accra Central
Ghana
cyril.france (at) gmail.com
cyril (at) savechildrennow.org
+233 249 415 528
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