What is Good for the Geese……….Part I

I have been confronted with the issue of moral uprightness a number of times, and I cannot vouch that I have stood tall all those times. In a society where right is wrong and wrong is right especially if it involves us sometimes it is difficult to say what exactly the touchstone of morality is. So we waiver and bend to what majority holds upright or what wind is blowing at the time or what favors us.  I am culpable as anyone else and also a victim as anyone else.

I believe the only way that one can escape this prison of moral degeneration is to accept the life of Jesus as the moral yardstick. But I am not speaking from the Christian point of view, but from the point of view of what we all have to do so we can have a moral just and fair society. I am not proposing what needs to be done, but just sharing what I meet with everyday as a common teacher in neglected school.

What we do today whether right or wrong affect present and future generations. One way or the other, we all profess a belief in one faith or the other.  It beats my understanding that irrespective of the number of faith and religious groups that spring up every day; greed, injustices and all forms of moral degradation envelope our society today. The corrupt politician, civil servant, public servant, businessman, student, individual are all part of the society, attend a religious meeting and upholds the beliefs that we all share. 

Every year when my students get to the final year, they become obsessed with passing their exams through any means possible.  The means do not involve working hard at their books but cheating in the exams to pass. Such penchant for cheating reached a crescendo this year when very earlier before they even got registered there were rumors that someone could help them have their grades changed. Some of my students approached me and said they actually spoke with the person and he wanted a teacher to be a liaison between him and the student. I declined. My students were disappointed. To them I was the only one they could trust to do that for them and since I declined that means their hopes were dashed.

I did not feel completely heroic. I felt some dint of guilt that I was unable to help them achieve their dreams. But was I not doing that already? Teaching them and inspiring them in the classroom, showing them all the opportunities that lie ahead of them if the study hard! My students believe that is not enough and that we should do more including cheating in exams for them to pass.

What makes this situation precarious is that they have evidence that other schools are engaged in such practices to make them pass. The harder I try to explain to them why they should not do that, the more they point to what is happening elsewhere. How other schools are passing courtesy their teachers but not the students efforts. And I will give in to defeat and accept what they say but not agree to do what they want.

But it is an open secret that some schools buy grades for their students. It is also widely known that some powerful parents buy certificates and grades for their wards. There have been a number of leakages of exam papers emanating from WAEC. If not from WAEC then where? After all they are the ones that have access to the papers. So what happens to many students who find themselves in situations that do not give them that access and chance others have?

Many of the students I teach already have poor academic backgrounds, are from poor homes and remote communities. They are in a school that has limited resources. Majority of them even lack faith in their own abilities and even that of us the teachers to motivate them to study and pass their exams. Cheating in exams is unacceptable. But where others use that and get ahead of others is also unacceptable and an injustice. And one feels cheated if he is unable to cheat so he can keep up with the Joneses.  For someone like me I feel guilty if I am not able to do that for my students. That is the guilt I carry all the times especially this year when only twelve out of over five hundred students pass their core Mathematics in my school.

Unless we create an equitable environment where everyone sees himself or herself being treated fairly, we do not have they moral right to judge the actions of others. We will accept that our society is corrupt, but it takes an uncorrupt leader to change a corrupt society. And we are all leaders in our own small ways. Where what is good for the gander is not good for the geese persists our fight against corruption and any form of moral degradation will be futile.

Time to Hold Politicians Accountable

Last year I was one of the people who felt the Electoral Commission should go ahead with the creating of new constituencies though some section of the electorate thought otherwise. The argument put forward for the EC not to go ahead with the creation of the new constituencies has to do with the timing. Those people felt that with the elections very close creating new constituencies may create chaos during the elections. But the new constituencies were created and the elections held and the elections results showed that those fears were unfounded.

I am, however, opposed to creation of new districts in principle as specified by the constitution that gave mandate to the EC to do so anytime the government creates new districts based on the data from a national decennial census. Such constitutional mandates for both the government and EC should be repealed. The government may argue creating new district and constituencies is a way of strengthening local government and deepening participatory democracy. But I think that this is hypocritical on the part of government since local government and participatory democracy are not enhanced by creating more districts and constituencies but strengthening institutions and structures of local and national governments.

Newly created districts will benefit from infrastructural development, but I ask the question, should we create new districts before we develop those areas? It is our right that our communities have good infrastructure whether or not they come under new districts. And it is the government’s responsibility to ensure these areas are developed. We should not make the government feel as if she is doing as a favor by creating new districts and promising that they will develop those districts through that. One should ask if governments are truly committed to making local government work and supporting metropolitan, municipal and districts developed the communities, why should she wait to create a new district before investing in developing that district? Where does the money all of sudden come from? Such act to me is insincere and a political strategy to keep the citizenry at the mercy of the politician.

An MP of Ghana basically has responsibilities to the Nation, constituency and party. Such responsibilities according to the Ghanaian Parliaments includes exercising legislative powers to the state through the introduction and passage of bills, explaining government policies to his constituents and monitoring development projects in his constituency and offering constructive criticism of the party’s policies. There is no mention of the MP providing development to his constituency. The MPs are the representatives of the people so is even our President. Does increasing the number of MPs in Parliament enhances the quality of their work in parliament and have positive effect on the electorate who put them there? If our argument is that number of MPs in parliament should show a proportional representation of the population, do we have to elect two presidents just because our population has increased?

I believe that the number of MPs should be fixed like the US House of Representatives. If this is not done every ten years we will be forced by the constitution to keep on increasing the number of MPs in our parliament. Increasing number of MPs will not improve the quality and standard of living of our people but rather put a further burden on government. Governments are quick to take on these new responsibilities but are not ready to take the necessary actions that safeguard continuous access of an increasing population to electricity, water, food, education, jobs and shelter. Let’s watch whether these new MPs in the current parliament who came as a result of the newly created constituencies will bring any difference to the lives of their people.

Finally we are one people and creating new districts only ends to bring sharp divisions along ethnic and chieftain lines. We are all witnesses to what happens when governments creates new district as to the situation of the district capitals and even boundary lines. The act of re-demarcating boarders and creating new districts out of old ones is a colonial tool to keep people in servitude to their masters.  I think that what we need to do is empower our assemblymen and women, unit committees and the chiefs so they can help mobilize their people for development.

Mathematical Commentary on Genesis 1: 27-28

Below I tried to use mathematics to explain the biblical viewpoint on gender issues. Men have used the Bible to place women as second fiddles. Much of this debate is not centered on just verses from the Bible but the use of the word 'man' which has been used to refer to 'humankind'. The position of most women is that such use of the word 'man' to refer to 'humankind' is a travesty of the fight for discrimination against women. As a result of this, these days it is appropriate for example to say 'chairperson' instead of 'chairman' or 'headship' instead of 'headmaster' etc. It is believed that such words as 'chairman' denotes the position as the preserve for men. My exposition here is to support the argument the word man means both male and female and both are equal in the eyes of God.

This is my absolute view and I am responsible for my own comments in this article.

"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. And God bless them and God said, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it...' Gen. 1: 27-28.

First of all what is established here is there is a relationship between God and man. For the sake of what I want to do I will explain what relation means in Mathematics.

A relation is an association between, or a condition satisfied by, ordered pairs of objects, numbers, etc such as ab=1, ........is greater than......or...... is the father of......or.......is the god of(mine).......(The Harper Collins Dictionary of Mathematics). An ordered pair is an ordered set of two elements; example {Mrs. Quansah, Adwoa} will be an ordered set for the relation 'is the mother of'. What it means is that this order cannot be changed to maintain the same relation. If the order is changed then we have what we called an inverse relation. In the example I have used {Mrs. Quansah, Adwoa}the ordered pair of the inverse relation 'is the duaghter of'' is {Adwoa, Mrs. Quansah}. So if the relation 'is the mother of' then the inverse relation 'is the daughter of'.

There are types of relations in Mathematics such as one-to-one relation, one-to-many relation, many-to-one relation and many-to-many relation. I do not want to go into the explanation and examples of these types of relations, but one-to-one and many-to-one relations are regarded as functions in mathematics. A function is denoted by using the letter f or g or h etc.

Since according to Genesis 1: 27-28, God created man in his own image we can define the relation 'the creator of' as the relation between God and man. So, man is the second element of an ordered set. The first member is God. The set is {God, man} and is defined by the rule 'the creator of'. This relation is one-to-one or injective and therefore a function. We can show if this is so. Let the first set of the ordered pair be denoted as G={g} where g=God and the second set be denoted M={m} where m=man. Let the function f denote 'the creator of' then we show that g₁, g₂  G with f(g₁) =f(g₂)=m, then g₁=g₂. So it is the same God. So this means there can only be one God.  

All we can say is that our function f is an injection of G into M. But let’s take the expression ‘of male and female’ in the verse quoted above. The question is, is the female also created in the image of God? Is the female a second fiddle of man? To look at these questions the members of our second set are now two, M={male, female}. Our ordered sets are now {g, m} and {g, f}. where male=m and female=f. g means the same as stated above.

The relation is no more one-to.one or injective. In mathematical terms it means there is more than one image of God because we can show that if g₁ , g₂  G then f(g₁) f(g₂) and hence g₁ g₂. This result would mean there might be more than one God for each to created male and female in their own image.

For the polytheist this is a good result but for the monotheist this result shakes the very foundations of his/her faith. For the monotheist female activists though happy with the inclusion of female in the proof will not appreciate the result. The monotheist male chauvinist is all the more happy. Mathematics has shown all along that he has been right in treating the woman as second fiddle but not as equal.

But the acceptance of the first proof in the line of thinking of the male chauvinist is a denial of the image of God in females. But this is a contradiction to the statement ‘male and female he created them’ and therefore his reasoning cannot be accepted. 

The implication is that God created male and female equal, that is {m} and {f} are equal sets. God named the set Man i.e. Man=male =female. The set {m, f} is not an ordered set (in this sense) since we can change the order and it will still remain the same. Whatever man can do women can do!

The proof of the invertibility of the function f :the creator of, leaves the question so what is the inverse relation (function) between God and man? If we invert the function then the ordered pair will reverse. But the first function is an important functio which places God at the center of man’s life. It is important for man to keep this relation.

Free SHS-My Thoughts.

Free SHS Education-Is it Possible?

During the IEA encounter with the electorate, the flag bearer of New Patriotic, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo mentioned the free senior high school (SHS) education policy as one of his intended policies he will implement when given the nod to rule this country come January 2013.  This has not been the only platform on which the Hon. Nana Akuffo-Addo has stated this; he has done this on every electioneering platform since 2008.

Nana’s policy is a noble idea but not a novelty and I believe he has good intentions for the people of this country. But very characteristic of Ghanaians the debate has been politicized along NPP-NDC lines. You are susceptible to be labeled NDC or NPP depending on whether you disagree or agree with the possibility of free SHS education. Worse of all those so called party faithful, serial callers and some social commentators have taken entrenched positions on the issue depending on which side they belong.

Is this party labeling fair? Even if one belongs to a political party, does that person not have the right to speak his mind objectively without being reminded the party he belongs to? Our partisan attitude has created a gag order making it impossible for experts and professionals to speak their minds on some of these pertinent issues that confront our country. Our political landscape is fraught with politicians who have no political conviction of how they can solve our problems.

So is free SHS education possible in Ghana? In my opinion it is possible in the long term if certain pressing issues that confront our educational system are taken care of first.

A major problem facing our educational system today is the focus on quantity neglecting quality. It is obvious that the NPP’s policy on education is inherently going to perpetuate this quantitative aspect of educational policy. It is good that we all go to school but pushing everyone to go to school for the sake of getting ‘education’ is not enough. Education if properly given should equip the educated with employable skills or ability to create employment.

School drop out is not just the result of inability to pay fees. There are a lot of other factors that cause children to drop out of school. Children may drop out of school because the school system is not challenging enough. Brilliant children who exhibit unusual behaviors have been branded as ‘witches and wizards’ and are forced to drop out of school. Our social attitudes and perception of the educated have forced so many children out of school. In communities where the most respected or rich person is not an educated person children consider going to school a waste of time because they believe one can succeed without education. Certain cultural and religious practices are also contributing factors to why some children drop out of school. Therefore basing the introduction of free SHS education on a single story of inability to pay fees is not enough.

Today while basic education is free and compulsory we know that not all children are in school. We can pat ourselves on the shoulder, however, since Ghana’s basic school enrolment is rated among the best in Africa. Our primary school enrolment is about ninety-five percent. Unfortunately our students have performed abysmally in international exams in basic math and science skills. Ghana’s educational system is ranked 148^th out of 181 in the world below countries like Equatorial Guinea and Namibia.

We also know that, though basic education is free some parents have their wards enrolled in private schools that charge exorbitant fees. Such parents are prepared to pay any amount of money to have the wards educated.  The reality is that majority of the public schools are producing a lot of illiterate graduates who can not read or write. The BECE results attest to this phenomenon.  Majority of these schools are found in the rural areas. The situation is that the gap between the rich and the poor, urban and rural is widening as a result of the kind of education they are receiving. 

Our quality of education is very poor as a result of many factors. One of these is teacher quality at the basic school level especially lower primary. The NPP cannot absolve itself of contributing to the problem when they created an ad-hoc solution of employing unqualified teachers to teach in their youth employment program.  When we continue finding makeshift solutions to problems we end up creating more problems. And one such solution is employing people who cannot even write their own names to teach in the lower primary because these are children who do not know anything. We forget that these years are formative years of the child, when the foundation is weak they grow up not knowing basic knowledge required to succeed at a higher level.

Another factor is not necessary infrastructure, even though this is eminent in the rural areas, but other conducive facilities that facilitate teaching and learning. Every child needs books to augment what is taught in school. In this age of information and technology children need access to computers. The reforms that introduced the JHS and SHS concept revised the curriculum and introduced the study of ICT at the JHS level. Computer studies which was also part of the Integrated Science syllabus at the SHS as level was decoupled and introduced as a subject on its own. Majority of schools mostly at the JHS level and the SHS in rural areas cannot boast of computer laboratories to facilitate the study of the subject.

Despite the employment of unqualified teachers to fill classrooms that are empty we have teacher deficit in this country. This teacher deficit does not occur in urban areas but in the rural areas of this country. In fact schools in urban areas are choked with teachers who do less work compared to their counterparts in the rural areas. Most teachers are not ready to accept posting to the remote parts of this country because it is a disincentive to work in this part of the country. Apart form the abundance of foodstuffs there is no opportunity for those teachers in the rural areas to upgrade their knowledge and improve their personal lives.

The School Feeding program and the Capitation Grant were very important interventions introduced by the NPP government to encourage children to go to school. These programs are being continued and expanded by the NDC government. We also know that the SHS boarding fees and some other fees are being subsidized by the government for the running of secondary schools in the country. But these programs are fraught with serious problems forcing some of the schools to borrow money to run their schools. And when they schools cannot pay they are forced to closed until government pays them.

I believe that the introduction of free SHS education will only reinforced the widening gap between urban rich schools and rural poor schools. Majority of the people who attend these schools in the city are the ones who go to prestigious private schools in the city. Schools that charged exorbitant fees but affordable by the elite in our society. It is a fact that the computer selection and placement program that selects students to SHS have never picked a student who hails from a school in a rural area who had aggregate 20 and place the child in Achimota school.

The free SHS education will also create an avenue for the proliferation of private senior high schools which may be producing more quality students than the public ones. The signs are already there. We know what is happening at the basic school level. Virtually every basic private school outperforms the public schools at the BECE exams. Parents are ready to send their wards to these schools. It is no doubt that such a situation will arise with introduction of the free SHS education. We should be wary so that we do not create a society where the minority elite and their children get access to the best things of this country while the majority poor get access to the worse. Every Ghanaian child deserves the best and that does not necessary mean free SHS education.

Today JHS graduates, SHS graduates, technical and vocational graduates, polytechnic graduates and university graduates are being turned out everyday. What skills have they acquired to meet the job opportunities of today’s world? The NPP promises job creation based on manufacturing. Will our mass production of graduates through the free SHS be equipped with the right skills to be employed in the manufacturing industries? Will our universities be able to admit all qualified applicants who want to pursue high education?

Free SHS education is possible but in the long term. A better educated Ghanaian will mean a well informed Ghanaian who will make well informed choices in the interest of this nation. A better educated Ghanaian will demand good service and accountability from politicians. A better educated Ghanaian will contribute immensely to the development of this country. That is what is needed right now, to improve upon the quality of education and work progressively towards free SHS education.