Lectures and Speeches
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Item Who is “them”?: Governance in the educational sphere(2016-11-10) Belo-Osagie, M.; Owusu, E.O.Education of our children is vital for the future of our country and indeed the whole of Africa. Governance of the educational sphere is therefore an important issue. Although this issue is one that should concern all of us we often fail to engage or participate - in part because we fail to see what we as individuals can do to make a difference. This talk explores the urgency of the concern; and seeks to encourage us to ask how we, as individuals, can address and respond to itItem Harnessing Our Multilingual Heritage for National Development(2019-05-02) Ansah, G.N.; Agyei-Mensah, S.Education has been linked to both human development and national development. This is so be-cause education (e.g. schooling, lectures on the virtues of punctuality) is believed to raise earnings, improve health, and add to a person’s good habits over much of his/her life time (Becker, 1993). In other words, education is regarded as a form of capital that supports economic growth and national development. Over the years, governments in Ghana have recognised this link between education, economic growth and national development and have committed national resources to several efforts at improving education with the hope of building human capital for national development. For instance, the Education for Accelerated National Development (1961-1966), the Kwapong Reform Committee for High Quality in Education for Growth (1967-1987), Basic Education for All (1987), Education in a Competitive Market driven Global Economy (2007-2016), and Free Senior High School Policy (2017), are major government policies that underscored the connection between education and national development. While these efforts may have yielded some results, e.g., increase in school enrolment, more access to education in general, more girls in school, higher literacy levels, etc., there is also an increase in carnage on our roads, filth on our streets and gutters, and non-working social interventions, among others which set Ghana back from being considered a developed nation. Why does our education appear not to be giving us the desired returns on all the investments governments have made in education over the years? A UNESCO (2012) report has admitted that in linguistically complex communities, when development initiatives are implemented in people’s first languages or a dominant language and in a culturally appropriate way, the people are often able to create appropriate, sustainable solutions - they are empowered to make decisions that enable them become key actors in social intervention programmes that benefit their communities. In this lecture, I focus on the role language plays both in education and in national development. I examine Ghana’s current (language in-education) policy which makes English the only capital in the country’s linguistic market, and argue that the linguistic practices that emanate from such a policy neither support the pillars of human development nor create the enabling environment for the achievement of sustainable development for national growth in the country. In other words, I argue that Ghana’s current language in-education policy makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many of the country’s human resources to achieve any appreciable level of personal development, a situation that renders the people more of a liability than an asset to the nation. I conclude by advocating a language (in-education) policy that builds upon the cultural and linguistic capital for a more effective/meaningful learning and proper human resource development which is a necessary tool for sustainable development and national progress.Item Proposing a Contextual Approach to Pre-School Teacher Education in Ghana(2017-03-27) Nyarko, N.Y.; Ampadu, E.Efforts of Ghanaian Universities and Colleges of Education in training pre-school teachers have been found inadequate and unable to meet their training needs. As a result, other private and non-governmental organisations have been contributing to the education of early childhood practitioners, although on pilot basis. Currently, most pre-school teachers remain untrained. Using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory as a Framework, this paper proposes a contextual approach to pre-school teacher education using radio as a training tool for teachers. The radio is easily accessible, handy, far reaching to remote rural settlements (than the internet) and low in cost. It is suggested that as in other community radio efforts it should be localised so the community ‘runs’ their own stations. Specific programmes should be devoted to topics on child development, child survival, early childhood pedagogy and other practical issues relevant to pre-school classrooms. This presentation concludes by suggesting periodic community (of stakeholders) meetings to form a support group.Item Growth, Education and Transformation: Resilience of African Christianity?(University of Ghana, 2016-03-03) Omenyo, C.