kriskotei

wondering what the future (if there is any) holds for these young lads. only time will tell

I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep. ~Charles Maurice

ABOUT A week ago it was reported in a national daily, Daily Graphic, that 50% of the students that sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Ghana had failed, or better still, they did not make the pass mark to enter into Senior ‘something… something’ School.

I am confused as to whether to call it a Senior High School or Senior Secondary School just because every government that takes over the mandate to rule the people of Ghana come in with their own ideas.

First, it was Sixth Form, Ordinary Level (O-Level) and Advanced Level (A-Level), and then it was reduced to Junior Secondary School and Senior Secondary School with a three-year each study programme which was later reduced to two and a half years for each stage.

This programme was also revised by another government to Junior High School and Senior High School with a four-year programme of study.

Thinking that this new programme will do ‘magic’ in the educational system of Ghana, a new directive has been issued to change that programme back to its previous three-year duration, all because a new government is in the driving seat.

Hope you are not surprised by all these ‘gutter-to-gutter’ games our leaders are playing with the educational system. Guess what, none of their children go to schools in Ghana so they have every right to toy with the lives of the poor ones who cannot afford even the visa fee let alone pay for plane tickets for their wards to go to school off the shores of Ghana.

What else do you expect the end result of this forth and back in the educational system to be, failure! And guess what, BECE graduates do not have a second chance. Once you fail, you are not permitted to re-sit the papers that you might have failed.

So, I sat down to ask myself, “what are all these boys and girls going to do?’ It is said that “to be a rich man, University is not the answer”, and that is my greatest worry because these lads might venture into other activities to enable them fit into society.

Prostitution, robbery and the latest craze among the youth, ‘sakawa’ are some of the vices that we will reap from failing to do that which is right for the society instead of playing politics with the mandate given them by the people to come out with pragmatic reforms to our problems.

Come to think of it, I find it absurd that the authorities are shocked about a school that is training kids in the art of armed robbery at Tema. What else do they expect? You reap what you sow.