By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, Feb 20, GNA – Professor Joseph Seyram Agbenyegah, international education expert, has maintained the need to gravitate towards an ideological purpose or systems for education for sustainable future as pertained in some developed economies.
He said such countries like Finland, Singapore and Malaysia have fashioned a sustained ideological education or system, which has underpinned their rapid socio-economic development and growth.
Delivering an address during the opening session of the National Education Forum in Ho, Prof Agbenyegah said such national reinforced systems should fortify the direction for educational progression for children, which must be entrenched in our core values.
He espoused that redevelopment of curriculum brings flexibility in the education enterprise in addition to developing a National Competency Framework as a toast.
He said curious, confident, critical and collaborative mind is what the country needs now to transform education for our future sustainability.
Prof Agbenyegah therefore said the launch of the National Education Forum (NEF) potentially begins a new and different discourse to develop new minds, which has the propensity to conceptualise a sustainable future that empowers people, answers all questions and driven by core component knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviour-related to sustainable development.
He said: “Knowledge of life involves a deep understanding of sustainable development, its goals and principles and the interconnectedness of social, economic and environmental systems.
“Without strong values we cannot transform education. The focus of values is on ethics, ethics of care, attitudes and behaviours that cultivate a sense of responsibility, respect, care for the well-being of the ecosystem and its people.”
Prof Agbenyegah proposed the development of a three-tier system, where the affluent will pay for everything, Second-tier system, who are in the middle-income level, will pay something small and those who are in the lower tier will pay nothing at all.
“That will make us future-proof education for sustainable future for our children. Without it, the system will crash. If you modulate and double the student number because in the Ghanaian society because of the way our attitude is sometimes it is free, so this is an opportunity to give a lot of children and burden the government does not have to pay anything.
“We gathered here today because we have high aspirations for transforming the Ghanaian education system, but aspirations and imagination are linked as both future oriented.
“We must recognise aspiration as a collective cultural capacity that rests not purely on individual motivation but a collective act.
“Our major problem in Ghana is not money it is an attitudinal problem and if we can change attitude, it’s easy for us,” Prof Agbenyegah said.
“Education system should nurture ethical, culturally responsive citizens to integrate cutting-edge technology to champion excellence and equity.
“We must dare to dream, we must dare to dream, to dream big for education and country, Ghana.”
Prof Kwame Acheampong, international education development consultant said it was prudent to prioritise marginalized groups in order to widen the talent pool saying any system that leaves people behind is no development.
He said Ghana’s discourse should be guided by the global experience and anchor results with evidence.
He said change should come in the classroom rallying support from stakeholders to maximize strategies for implementation of recommendations, deliver capacity to scale and adapt to data while relying on medium to long-term frameworks.
Togbe Afede, Agbogbomefia of Asogli, who chaired the Forum praised President John Mahama for giving meaning to campaign pledges which culminated in the National Education Forum, among others.
GNA