Failed Stewardship

The education sector is nowhere near exiting the doldrums in which it has been stuck since the NDC government subjected it to hair-raising policy experiments.

Our inability to live up to the dream of the colonial authorities, as a model independent country with an excellent educational sector, is unfortunate.

With a minister like the one foisted upon us by the President, this path of retrogression is not amazing.

If there is any sector which should be spared the diabolic propaganda of the Mahama government, it is education.

Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, of the Presidential Debate fame or infamy, does not share our position; she has jumped headlong into the propaganda bandwagon vacillating dangerously as the sector wobbles under her stewardship.

Relishing the reward for the masterful concealment of her political colours when she moderated the presidential debate series, she appears to have lost her thinking cap.

Our return to this subject is informed by the loud wailing of this sector in the hands of a lady who is now the subject of national derision. She sits behind her massive desk at the education ministry pretending to be working, as public universities and polytechnics remain shut.

Contradictions from her remarks, following the abysmal results from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), have etched for her unenviable impressions.

Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang does not see anything appalling with the recent West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, choosing to look at them with the political prism.

Virtually recommending claps on the back of the Mahama government, she has carried propaganda too far—a deficiency incommensurate with her status as a professor.

We would be observing her for traces of academic senility as she refuses to accept the reality of falling educational standards as reflected by the WASSCE results under review.

Her conduct has triggered questions about her commitment to providing quality education for Ghanaian children.

She has revised the pass and failure percentages as presented in the media, denying that the figures in the public domain are worth the public outcry.

She has however turned round to announce the empanelling of a committee to probe the outcome of the exams, a contradiction of the highest order.

We hasten to ask what purpose the committee would serve, given her disagreement that the statistics are worrying.

The fallout from a warped educational sector at the hands of a personality consumed by an obsession to show off party colours can only be imagined.

A hardworking and sincere government can quickly reverse the statistics of a damaged economy; but not so fast when the subject is education.

University and polytechnic teachers have a harrowing story to tell about their colleague’s performance as she spots the propaganda robe of her darling party.

With failure characterising her tenure, resigning would have been ideal; but like Henry Wampah and others in like mould, hanging on is no aberration.