A successful entrepreneur, trainer, and CEO of B.C. Bencycn Limited, Benjamin Anyanah, is concerned that Ghana’s education system produces students who are obsessed with achieving top positions on school rolls and rankings.
These students, who are nearly perfect and can thoroughly memorize and reproduce what they are taught, are, however, unable to function in a fast-paced society.
Mr. Anyanah expressed his concerns during an interview with A1 Radio’s Mark Smith on the Day Break Upper East Show, discussing the interest of young people in the Upper East Region in attending and participating in personal development and capacity-building programs.
“It is very poor, especially among educated people,” he said.
Mr. Anyanah emphasized that due to the structure of education in Ghana, students are highly competitive in the wrong areas but lack the ability to collaborate and form partnerships to help solve problems affecting the daily lives of residents.
Additionally, young people, because of the education system in Ghana, care very little about personal development that cannot be learned in the classroom.
“What I have noticed is that young people, especially the educated class, are just focused on saying things like, ‘I am educated.’ And so what? What is the essence of education? How have you been able to use what you have learned in school to help society? How are you building on what you learned in school? Even the universities are facing the same problems.”
“Our educational system doesn’t nurture creativity and personal development. We need to change the educational curriculum. We are always competing to be first, but for what? To be first in what? If you are the first, so what?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, the CEO of AquaBolg Natural Mineral Water, esteemed media practitioner, and football administrator, Humul Khrusum Tahiru, has raised concerns about the interest of young people in the Upper East Region in participating in various programs, including religious and personal development activities.
Madam Tahiru explained that the situation is exceptionally worse when considering personal development programs.
“Even with entertainment and religious programs, I doubt if we have the interest to the level where we would have wanted young people to be interested. Generally, we have a bad attitude when it comes to program attendance in this region. It doesn’t matter what kind of program it is. But it becomes worse when it comes to capacity-building programs. Sometimes, they feel that it is of no essence,” she said.
Additionally, Raymond Ayinne, a Youth Activist, has also expressed strong disappointment over the general disinterest of the youth in personal development and capacity-building programs.
Mr. Ayinne, who has been part of the organisation of many youth-led and beneficial programs, explained that it was unfortunate that young people do not participate in such programs.
The conversation around participation in personal development programs began after the host of A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith, shared some insights after leading the organisation of two youth-oriented programs in the region over the last two years.
“I have been involved in a number of activities geared towards empowering young people, and you realise that despite all your marketing and promotional efforts, many young people are adamant. Let me digress a bit to say that the situation in the Upper East Region is not peculiar to Northern Ghana. If you go to Tamale and organise an event, and you put out a flyer, people contact you for details of the activities. That is the sort of demonstration of interest in their self-development. You also see that in the Upper West Region. In the case of the Upper West Region, 30 minutes before the start of the program, the hall will be filled with people who have seen it and are chasing you to be part of it. People also call you and give you feedback on how to improve the programs. The same cannot be said about the Upper East Region,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
