Does Japan Know Better?

To date, Prof Lungu has published at least 4 essays on public education on Ghanaweb. The last two dealt with “$100 Laptops” for primary schools in Ghana. In the last “$100 Laptop” essay, we advanced 8 questions for the committee “proposed” by the Prof Mills administration to probe the context under which 1,000 “$100 Laptop” were ordered by the previous administration. We are still waiting!

In the original “$100 Laptop” piece published 2007-11-20 on Ghanaweb, we showed how Uruguay was a significant exemplar for Ghanaians to study. We are still watching!

In our recent essay titled, Mills/NDC FOI Bill Scatter with $50,000 Freebie “Loans,” we asked several new questions. We asked why the current administration thinks giving $50,000 “loans” to MPs is a higher priority than making sure Ghana’s public universities have adequate facilities for the thousands of eligible students being deprived of university education because universities have no capacity.

The fundamental question is: Why are $50,000 “loans” for MPs a higher priority when many schools lack permanent buildings? The reader mindful of the “open secret” on this forum will quickly connect “lack of permanent buildings” to “school children sitting under trees” in front of their teachers, assuming those children have a teacher in the first place. Please indulge!

This short piece is about another exemplar worthy of note by Ghanaian officials and others interested in education for Ghana’s young children. Fly to Japan and join us!

This essay is about a small island community in Japan, Hatoma Island in Taketomi Town, Okinawa Prefecture. Hatoma Island has a problem and you might call that a school problem! As reported by Japan Update, the insightful and community-centered weekly in its 25 June issue, Hatoma Island has an elementary school alright. In fact, Hatoma Island has permanent facilities for their school. But that is not their problem at all.

The problem of the Hatoma Island School is this: Hatoma Island has no children to attend Hatoma Island School. In the report, Japan Update tells readers the school’s last 4 students, “brothers and sisters,” left the island “when their mother became ill.” Come to find out, the Hatoma Island community has “struggled for years to keep the school going” on account of lack of children.

So you ask what is the point, Prof Lungu?

Well, the point about this school that had only 4 students last semester is this: Hatoma Island School had, and still has 10 employees, “counting the principal...an assistant principal, four teachers, a nurse and cooks,” in addition to the permanent school building. According to Japan Update, the community planned to hold a “school event…June 28th...to decide if they should continue with the program, even though there are no children to participate in the activities.”

There you have it, reader!

Here is the take-away: Officials and communities in certain places take education of their young citizens very serious, even if they only have hope of receiving new students in the future. In this case, Hatoma Island School is more than a building: Hatoma Island School enlightens and preserves children, citizens, and the larger community, and it does that in all types of circumstances, difficulties, and opportunities.

We might assume that this is probably a problem many communities in Ghana would “love” to have. Maybe Ghanaian parents, perhaps cocoa farmers, would want to ship their children currently attending “Tree Schools” to the Hatoma Island School, if they had a choice. Clearly, they ought to be able to bear the cost. After all, isn’t it the case that there is a lot cocoa produced in Ghana, in Japan? Just go to the nearest supermarket or grocery store in Tokyo, Osaka, or Okinawa and ask for “Ghana.” You will get many chocolate bars, sold proudly.

Yes, cocoa for school buildings, some love, and some concern for Ghana’s young ones, even if it has to be in Japan! At least we would expect that they would come back with more than $100 laptops.

We’d like to think that ought to begin to fit the bill – cocoa for school buildings

But wait. The Ghanaian Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Tourism may have to tell us how many “Ghana Bars” are produced and consumed in Japan to make all of that work for us. Can you bet your bottom cedi that the 50,000-dollar Ghanaian Ministers of Agriculture and Tourism are up to this small task? Can they tell us, if we gave them 48 hours and a fax machine?

Haba Professor!

It is probably uncomplicated to conclude that Hatoma Island will do the best it can for Hatoma children, even if they do not have any children presently, which begs the question: Are Ghanaian public officials doing the best they can in the interest of young citizen-children who also have rights? Do these citizens have higher priority when it comes to use of public resources, including use of loans and other funds from external sponsors such as The World Bank, the IMF, USAID, etc.?

Chew on all of that, Ghana!

Chew on that, The World Bank!

© 22 July, 2009. Prof Lungu, Tokyo, Japan.

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