CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE TO WHAT EFFECT

Ghana celebrates another independence day again, and this is the 57th time we are doing this. Of course among the league of independent states we hold so much pride to be counted among the pioneering nations in Africa. ‘The first country south of the Sahara to gain independence in Africa’ has always been the refrain. But the question of whether this independence should mean anything at all to us is a debate for another day. Most of us have also read and heard countless discussions on how meaningless our independence has been since we still depend on the west for most aspects of our economic development. The recent refusal of foreign donor agencies to support our economy with some estimated $700 million is seen by some as a recipe for national disaster. At this point we need to salute Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Anyway, we are still an independent state and what we must be committed to doing as to live our lives daily fighting for the realization of the dreams of our country’s founders for a truly independent society. You might agree that this is surely not what our founders wished for us when they shed their blood for our independence. To a lot of us, independence still remains a dream, a dream which has not been fully realized more than 57 years after it was conceived. Education, western formal education is a purely colonial initiative and an apparent sign of western cultural domination. However, it is one aspect of the white man culture we should determined to stick to as it refines and literal empowers us. Sadly, recent results reveal a steep downward slide in the performance of pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examination. When close to 50% of candidates presented at an examination fails a great deal is wrong, it cannot be good. Aggregate six has now become as privileged as securing a visa to heaven. Save Okorase St Mary’s, no school produced candidates with aggregate six in the district. And this is from eighty-eight schools ranging from Obosomase to Kobokobo. This should certainly call for an urgent stakeholders meeting if we really control our own affairs and we have a say in our future. As independent as we are we don’t seem to care about the dwindling academic fortunes of our children. Children have been left to sort their educational life out with their teachers and this cannot be good. Our independence must be seen in the provision of quality education for our children. In the past when some of us schooled here, times were harder, learning was tougher but our results were better. Children, stick to your books. Parents don’t shirk your responsibilities. Because certainly we are independent and rightly so, our future depends on our own selves. Afehyiapa!!!!