If School and College Leavers Cannot Find Work?

By: Otchere Darko

When one considers the many Ghanaian youths who have completed various levels of education and cannot find work because there are not enough job vacancies to absorb them, then one has to ask the question above. If one has to ask it, then one has to be helped with an answer. In my opinion, the answer to this question above is “yes”, and “no”.

Yes, Ghanaian parents should educate their children in whatever form and to whatever level, *if the resources of the nation and those of such parents allow it; and also, if the individual intellectual capabilities of the children of such parents allow them. It is clear from above that there must be three conditions. The first condition is that it should be the duty of the Government to let this happen, by creating the “enabling environment” that facilitates education in such form and up to such level as needed. In other words, because it is not all parents who have the financial means to educate their children in any particular form and to any particular level, there should be no duty on parents to give their children any form of education to any level, unless the Government or some other provider is ready to provide adequate facilities and the financial means needed to educate all children in all types, and to the levels required. The element of “parental duty” to send their children to school or college therefore can only become affirmative and an issue, only if there is the presumption of “fully free and fully facilitated education”.

*By ”fully free and fully facilitated education”, I mean firstly *there must be enough schools and enough classrooms to cater for all the children of all school going ages up to the levels concerned. *Secondly, there must also be enough furniture, books, uniforms, other learning aids, and adequate means to maintain and replenish all these facilities. *Thirdly, there must be enough trained teachers and other support staff to run and manage all the schools and classrooms needed in the country to provide such forms and levels of education at all times during any given school term. *Fourthly, there must be free school meals for school children, since it is not all parents who can afford to give their children food or money for school. *Fifthly and above all, there should not be any tuition fees or similar payments for any school facilities or services used by school children. When all school facilities and services are available adequately and freely to all children in all part of the country, then we can say that all Ghanaian parents should, as of duty, send their children to any particular school or college and up to any particular level. Even then, some parents may still not want to send their children to such “free schools” or “free collages” to waste their time, if they believe that their children will not get work when they complete such schools or colleges. *This brings us to the second condition, which is that education planners should ensure that school and college leavers at both pre-university and higher education levels can always be absorbed by the job market. *The third condition, [or rather a consideration in this case], is that unless the system of education suits the intellectual and other individual circumstances of different children, not all of them can access education as the government or the community may want. Thus, in designing the types and levels of education, planners must take into cognisance the circumstances of the various types of children, including the mentally retarded and the physically challenged. *From the above quick glance-through, can it be said that Ghana has the facilities and financial resources to provide the system of education that fulfils the conditions above?

This brings me to my negative answer which is: no, Ghanaian parents should not be compelled to send their children to school. Ghana lacks the facilities and the financial means to provide the system of education that should place a “duty” on parents to send their children to school. The Government must do more before this “parental obligation” can become a reality and be made enforceable. In particular, the Government must concentrate on creating more and better educational infrastructure that can facilitate the basic education of all children from age 5+/6 years to possibly age 17+/18 years. *The habit of governments in Ghana concentrating the best educational facilities in urban places, and neglecting rural areas is not only wicked, but also economically harmful to the overall development of Ghana. The best way through which educational facilities can evenly be spread nationwide, therefore, is for the Government to devolve more power, responsibility and resources to communities through their local assemblies, to enable local people to plan and provide for all the educational needs of their communities up to the SHS level. In my opinion, if more power, responsibility and resources could be devolved to local communities, then basic education from age 5+/6 and beyond to SHS can be well developed and improved, to make it possible for children from age 5+ to age 18 to pursue equal education, at all levels, and in all parts of the country. For now, however, it makes no sense for any parent to be compelled to send his or her child to school, or college. Ultimately though, the “parental duty” to give their children education up to SHS level should be the goal of our Government and should form part of its educational policy, irrespective of which party is in power; and this should be based on the complete fulfilment of the requirements of the three conditions discussed above. In my opinion, the country could afford to pursue such goal and such policy if: (1) our leaders could manage the nation’s resources well, and (2) the Government could bring itself to devolve power, responsibilities and the needed resources from central government to local people to plan, provide, manage and control all vital basic social services which should include education up to age 18. *I strongly feel that this should be the targeted medium to long-term educational aim of any Ghanaian Government from now to the next five to ten years’ time.

To help Ghana to solve the problem of unemployed and unemployable school and college leavers, and help make pre-university levels of education attractive to both parents and their children, each of such levels has to be assigned specific educational goals. For the purpose of providing a basis for discussion among readers of the article, I suggest these: *Primary or elementary school education should have the main goal of providing children with the general and rudimentary knowledge that allows them to begin to grasp simple ideas and ways about life and living; and which must form the basis for continuation studies at the JHS level. Primary school education should therefore not be an end, but a means to JSH. *The JHS level should have as its main goal the broadening and deepening of the basic knowledge acquired by students at the elementary school level and helping them to expand this to other fields of learning and their interrelationships; and how and why these fields of education impact on life. The JHS level, like elementary education, should not be an end in itself. It should rather provide children with as much basic education as they will need, to enable them to be knowledgeable enough at the end of it to be in positions to decide their future, based on their strengths and weaknesses academically and otherwise. At the end of the JHS, those who cannot, or do not want to pursue academic work up to higher education can then move to the next stage, which is the SHS stage and which should prepare such “non-academic” children to acquire the basic skills that should help them to exit formal education and enter basic-level employment at the age of 18 years, or just under 18. Also, at the end of the JHS, those who can and want to pursue academic work into higher education can move to the next stage of formal education, which should be the same SHS stage, but which must aim at preparing this “academic” group of children towards entering whichever type of higher education they can and want to pursue in the years ahead of them, prior to finally entering the job market. *Senior High School level of education should then have the “specific” goal of preparing students towards either: “higher education” or “basic employment”. The ultimate goal of SHS in particular and of basic education in general should therefore become “producing school leavers who are 18 years of age or nearly; and who have either gained admissions into universities and other institutions of higher education, or gained job-placements with employers in the public or private sector”.

All courses offered by higher educational institutions which must include Universities, Polytechnics, Teachers’ Training Colleges, Nurses’ Training Colleges, etc, [all of which institutions should admit their students from the SHS level or above], should be as “fully paying” as possible, in order to leave the Government with enough financial resources to provide as free pre-university education as possible. *If students pursuing higher education are going to pay fully for their education, then they have to do courses that will enable them to get work soon after completing their courses, so as to be able to pay any students’ loans they may need to take in order to “self-finance” their education at that level. This fact must place a contractual duty on all three stakeholders concerned with higher education, namely: the students accessing higher education, the authorities in charge of higher educational institutions and the Government planning for education, to ensure that all courses offered and taken at that level lead to specifically identified job-placements, on completion.

In short, education should not generate “false hopes” by creating a “population of school and college leavers who aspire for jobs that are not there”, and yet who also have been forced by the “false hopes” given them by education to break ranks with the rural life and occupations out of which they grew up and which sustained them and their parents..... such as farming, fishing, or other manual jobs. *There is no doubt that education becomes a complete failure and waste of time, if it creates graduates and school leavers who cannot find employment and who have to become dependent on their parents; or who have to be drawn into crime to sustain a living..... like “Fati lbrahim, a Senior High School (SHS) leaver, {who} was said to have broken into the bedroom of a certain Mabel Boamah, a trader at the Ashaiman Central Market.” *[Ghanaweb of 17th January 2011; Culled from News report headed “Woman Serial Robber Grabbed”]. *WHAT A SHAME! But whose shame is it? Certainly, it is the shame of the Government of Ghana and our educational planners; and not that of Fati or her parents who, like many others, have merely become victims of a failed system of education in Ghana.

Source: Otchere Darko; [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today.]