5 Areas Responsible For Poor Educational Performance In Ghana

The blame game always starts whenever the results of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) are released.

While teachers blame pupils and the government, pupils blame teachers and parents. Parents also blame teachers and pupils whilst the government blames teachers and parents. This has to stop and the way forward found as I seek to discuss the five areas responsible for poor performance in our schools.

1.      The Pupil

It is a known fact that pupils these days don’t have much interest in books when compared to pupils of the last two decades. They roam about aimlessly in the streets. They absent themselves from school without any tangible reason. They pay less attention to the teacher while in class. Some browse Facebook while teaching goes on. Pupils nowadays prefer marrying each other to ‘marrying their books’. They abandon their books and play a lot.

Another issue is the gross indiscipline exhibited by pupils both at home and at school. They disrespect teachers and parents. Pupils these days are not punished for wrongdoing, thanks to the monster called ‘Child Rights’. Teachers are barred from punishing any pupil for bad behavior. The “rod” is now being spared to help spoil the child all because of ‘Child Rights’.

We have a lot of unemployed graduates in Ghana, and this acts as a disincentive to most pupils. They feel it’s all not helpful after ‘wasting’ time on books and having to roam from one office to another in a futile search for a job.

2.     aThe Parent

Parents have less interest in education as evidenced by absence from Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, not providing educational materials for pupils such as books and other stationery, not paying pupils school fees in time, not monitoring pupils' performance, and over-burdening pupils at home with household chores. They feel it is a waste of time and money as most graduates fail to land decent jobs after completion of school. They would rather have pupils help them sell at the market square than attend learning centers. Some parents also refuse to fully hand over their pupils to the teachers. They assault teachers for punishing their wards.

3.      The Teacher

Teachers feel a bit helpless to control pupils as their main form of ensuring discipline has been taken away by the monster called ‘Child Rights’. Pupils cannot be punished for not learning enough. The use of canes is barred in the classroom. They feel lazy to come to class only to be restricted by law not to correct pupils placed in their care. Pupils can now misbehave in class and go free. This often leaves the teacher frustrated and helpless.

Poorly trained teachers have diluted the quality teachers we used to have in the schools. Teachers without any prior training in teaching methods now handle pupils at various levels of education. Some of these so-called teachers use poor teaching methods (if any at all).

Teachers are also overburdened with huge numbers of pupils per class. Some classes have been divided into two, A and B. These divisions make the supervision of pupils very difficult for teachers. Teaching is ineffective as a single teacher has to jostle between two classes.

Teachers no longer care about pupils unlike in the past where teachers traced absentees to their various homes to find out why they were not in school. They don’t care anymore whether pupils are present in the school or not.

4.      The Environment

It is true that certain environments are not conducive to learning. Most communities lack educational facilities. There are no libraries in most communities. Most communities also lack recreational facilities that will aid learning.

5.      The Government

The government’s unwillingness to invest in education has always hindered teaching and learning in schools. Most schools lack textbooks and teaching materials to facilitate learning.

The rapid changes in government policy towards education due to changes in government always results in uncertainty and inconvenience in the educational sector.

The poor supervision of teachers by Circuit Supervisors (CSs) is also to blame for poor performance. Some Circuit Supervisors take bribes from certain teachers and allow them to do what they want. Headteachers don’t supervise teachers under them. A teacher either chooses to teach well or not as there’s poor supervision in the schools.

I believe if these things are corrected, the quality will return to our schools and discipline will rule our society. After all, we did it before.