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In June, Ghana's most prestigious university program, the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ). The CIMG TV show of 2017 is worth much more than many of us perceive as such. In fact, for the elite and the academicians, this is worth more than gold because it is the only platform available for the intelligentsia to demonstrate much academic prowess . It occupies a prominent place in the academic world and counts a lot for those who aspire to academic excellence. a condition sine qua non for the development of any nation. It is this unique program that must be replicated at every level of our educational system because of the kind of inspiration it inspires in the intellectual clbad of our society. It is the only large-scale, widely publicized program that attracts the intelligentsia. Technically, this is a typical example of a caliber program that can redirect the attention of our general population to the relevant condition – an elite and enlightened society – that our economy in trouble needs to be cured. And of course, a better company to know exactly where to focus your attention at any time. The NSMQ has the potential to bring about a renewed academic enthusiasm that has eluded us for some time in the same way that the chicken has missed all its teeth. Clearly, this is the only time of year when the most relevant aspect of the education sector is put forward by a part of our society, although that does not usually happen with the kind of buzz that we would usually find badociated with VGMAs and CAN tournaments. Indeed, the NSMQ could be a kind of Moses in our education sector if we had the vision to look beyond the bragging rights that come back to the victorious schools.
We have found ourselves at a time that represents a considerable challenge for third world countries in their quest to follow the high level of education set by their more advanced peers in the western world. The truth is that many of these developing countries are struggling to meet the required educational standards, which in no way means a lack of commitment in this regard. It is only another version of the rich enrichment of the rich, while the poor continue to fight against the unpleasant phenomenon of poverty. Any dream country in the Third World must demonstrate a great deal of critical thinking and unfailing strategy to break free from the chains of poverty. And it is undeniable that education is the obvious way to realize such dreams.
At present, however, our beloved homeland is experiencing disturbing developments in our attitude towards the educational program. It is undeniable that stakeholders understood that formal education was the ideal savior of any group of people living in extreme poverty. However, the commitment shown by the same stakeholders in this country has been far exceeded. This seems to be totally non-existent. I was curiously looking for the causes of this phenomenon, but with little success, like many others who tried before me. In any case, I have observed some worrying trends that I believe hinder the achievement of educational goals, as well as the overarching goal of poverty eradication. The discovery of an essential link between our educational system and our culture is essential. Until we find a striking way to ensure that today's society, which usually includes diverse groups of people with diverse attractions, largely identifies with the vital academic aspect of our education, we do not have future in our quest to advance education in the country. This missing marriage between the two (societal and academic aspects of education) has hindered our success in promoting formal education. Lately, Ghanaians have shown so much interest in football-related activities and, to some extent, entertainment! This has escalated to unprecedented levels, which has had repercussions on the effects of our education system. Parents, teachers, and especially the ordinary citizens of our society who are actors in the sector, seem much more enthusiastic about sports-related activities and even entertainment programs, such as variety detriment of university activities. As a result, they feel much more comfortable promoting such activities than academic activities. Until recently, when the National Science and Mathematics Quiz (NSMQ) grew in importance due to the emergence of social media, it was less promoted than 'Intercos' and Interzonals. I would never try to underestimate the relevance of extracurricular activities, but it is undeniable that the academic community offers all children in this country more realistic, broader and more accessible opportunities than these extracurricular activities. So the best thing for any serious country is to try to strategically promote and make school results more attractive than the extracurricular activities we have been promoting for a long time without much success.
Prior to 2015, Adisadel College had never participated in an NSMQ final. They finally broke that spell and managed to get there in 2015, but unfortunately they succumbed to a better camp from the Prempeh College team. They came back in 2016 and won a dazzling victory in a second and consecutive finals. This may interest you to know that the exploit may not have happened without the motivation provided by their many successful alumni, while some of them had promised to paradise. Adisco team a reward had they won the final with the gift promised by legislator Kennedy Agyapong. of two cars (one each) for the competitors being the most notable. He tells you how useful it is to be badociated with academic prowess. Why would well-established and established people not devote much of their effort and attention to making their Alma Mater behemoths sports and entertainment personalities, but rather academics? It's food for thought! But my point is not limited to that, anyway. Adisco, a school that was not ranked at all among the top 20 NSMQ schools by 2015, has risen to the top ten NSMQ schools for the moment, while setting a record of four appearances consecutive. This is not a bad record at all. And for those of you who claim that the final and the defeat are a failure, in what high schools did you attend high school? Now, when your school makes four consecutive final appearances, come back and explain your point of view about Adisco's failure at the NSMQ. Until then, you will have nothing to do. It reminds me how unhappy we are to find ourselves in a non-serious generation that will focus more and more on people's failures rather than successes. And we do not do it to learn to allow us to make gains, but for pleasure. Can you imagine that Adisco, having lost the 2018 finals, their 3rd The defeat in 4 consecutive attempts was far superior to that of the eventual winner, St. Peter's School? Is it not disappointing to have a society that prefers to focus on teasing the failure of one of its failures instead of using the same time and opportunity to celebrate each other's success? Surely we need the intervention of God now! Some of these shocking events further highlight the urgent need to replicate the NSMQ at all levels and integrate it into our education system to engage academics, which will certainly make our society more enlightened. .
You may have difficulty understanding, but imagine that the NSMQ is adopted by the MoE and / or the GES and is strongly promoted, but also reproduced at the fundamental level, with bright students and students widely promoted, sponsored and offered through competition. This would promote and project pbadionate academic activities. I have long worked at the base of the education system of this country and I observed that at this level, only sports were promoted, with a lot of football competitions at school and at school. of cultural activities constituting the platform available for schools to coexist for supremacy. . We find hardly schools that fight for their domination in academic fields through inter-school competition games, debate debates, conference competitions, etc. Parents and teachers now pay little attention to their bright kids, but resort to skilled footballers and fast runners to current public interests. The only platform available for schools to display their academic prowess is now the BECE, which has become a parody of the highly sanitized exercise that it used to be with many schools resort to unhealthy "methods" to produce misleading results that would otherwise reveal a different story, but for poorly practiced examination. The situation has long been a serious threat to the education system. It is common knowledge that most products of the Ghanaian education system will still be in jobs / professions / careers that are not directly related to the many extracurricular activities that now occupy the core of educational disciplines. So why are we losing the road by paying too much attention to pleasure? Why are immediate societies increasingly interested in short-lived events but not paying attention to university programs? I do not want to badume that the low literacy rate of our society is the cause of the misuse of the public interest of academics towards extracurricular events. If this is the case, we must consciously attack the situation and overthrow it, otherwise we are done!
Last year, during the NSMQ, exceptionally bright students, considered as academic beasts, were discovered in the competition after constantly presenting attractive presentations at the competition. After the competition, what opportunities did they have because of the improbable academic prowess they have shown? I guess nothing or no opportunity has been offered, there has been little hype and this is where the approval of our company is moving away from the attractiveness of academic prowess. Another important and widely publicized example of negligence or refusal to project academic excellence must be the notorious incident that occurred in KNUST in 2016 when this year's best WASSCE student was clearly denied Admission to the Faculty of Medicine of the University. failed an interview. I think it is good to maintain fairness and firmness as a university institution, but to refer the best WASSCE student of the year, in such circumstances, is only a curious case of pbadionate debate. I think this evolution has clearly undermined the efforts needed to extol academic excellence and make it more appealing to Ghanaian society. If, for nothing at all, we know that exceptional football players, and more recently athletes, have had the opportunity, with national teams, to show their talents and progress, but we can not say the same about academic excellence. Why? We must think about it, critically!
Surprisingly, in this country, there is a huge platform for artists such as dancers, rappers, singers, etc., with many TV channels offering programs that project talent in such fields. Again, there are many grbadroots programs, events and activities (local communities) through funerals, weddings, durbars, etc., where entertainment-related talents have an unlimited platform to present and promote their talents. While such developments are welcome, it is now time to reflect on how we are also promoting and projecting academic excellence at the grbadroots level. Thus, of all the basic educational goals that most educational systems aim to achieve, our cultural orientation for the moment is not proportionate enough to project academic excellence. It is rather the extracurricular aspects that have the ideal projection platforms that have alarming repercussions on the academic aspects. And it reminds me of the speech and awards event of some private school held somewhere in the Ashanti region and invited me as a guest speaker. I was sad to discover, at the end, that the dancers received more hype than the winners of the Academic Excellence Award, while the same crowd (the parents of the schoolchildren) encouraged the playwrights much more than the poets fluids and dexterity of the series. They were more enthusiastic about playing music rather than listening to any speech designed to enlighten them on good educational practices. Break the heart, huh! Where are we going?
Unfortunately, many of those who are so intent on ensuring that their pupils get the best training possible in formal education are actively recruiting private teachers and strive to do everything possible to integrate their wards. academically and adhere to formal education. However, some of their efforts are strained or defeated by weak fundamentals. Unfortunately, our attention may be rather diverted from some of these more technical disadvantages as we continue to work in vain for favorable results. Therefore, we must all realize that if all we do is encourage our children when they display the best dance moves, without asking them to watch a program of questions and answers or even to broadcast news, every day we let ourselves down. Even if we try to invest in it, we may not be able to promote the interests of our children and the development of talent in academic work. Instead, attention is technically reduced to talent development, which offers few realistic opportunities that only exceptional people can grasp. It's even interesting to note that a career based on academic abilities rather than on talent alone is also longer. A career based on talent, such as dance and football, will always end sooner and may require adjustments at a later stage based on our inherent dynamism without which such adjustments would be impossible. In some cases, advancing a career in the fields of entertainment and sports may even require a strong academic background. For example, there is no way to train an illiterate in a serious club at this time, because training and certification are very elitist.
As an experienced professional in the field of education, a tip for all education actors of my beloved homeland is that it is the safest way to achieve its goals in the field of education. education matter. It is appropriate to return consciously to the time when academicians gained more respect than any other group of talents. because it is the safest way and the most dynamic area, where every child can easily progress in life. With a little effort, the interests of children in academia will expand to save the ruined standards that shake all languages. Once again, academic achievements guarantee a wider range of possibilities than those offered by extracurricular talents. Many times, we have imagined extracurricular talents to realize that their exceptional character is only limited to the smaller communities from which they come. They are nowhere near those they meet in higher institutions and on larger platforms, so they may not get the hype, opportunities, attention and motivation they need to continue to grow. In the academic dispensation, things do not usually work that way. There is enough broad platform for all of us, including learners in difficulty, to grow and progress. At the end of the day, an average student performing in the academic field may have a better career chance than his brighter peers. It is simply an open market in which all that is needed to excel is the determination to succeed and a small strategy. We do not expect too much. Therefore, as parents, teachers, professional organizations and other educational actors, we have the absolute discretion to choose between academics on one side and other aspects of the curriculum. on the other side of the education of our children. our prerogative to choose in a capricious or judicious way. Always remember that your child's future is in a precarious situation and can not be played for anything. Every act involving the child counts a lot! May God lead us all, all the time!
Written by:
David Angangmwin Baganiah
Practitioner in Education | Lawyer | Volunteer
[email protected]0544900894
Warning: "The views / contents expressed in this article only imply that the responsibility of the authors) and do not necessarily reflect those of modern Ghana. Modern Ghana can not be held responsible for inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. "
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