Accra, Dec. 12, GNA – Ms Florence Esi Damali, an Educationist, said education must be holistic to cover all dimensions of social life.
“To make education the bedrock of national development, we must ensure that we offer holistic education to develop the cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills,” she said.
Ms Damali, a former Director of Education in the Ga East Municipal Assembly, said this at the opening of an educational facility; Happy Royal International School (HRIS), at Adenta in Accra.
It was on the theme: “Education, the Bedrock of National Development.”
She said the goal of education was to train the head – knowledge acquisition; hand – skills development; and the heart – attitude formation.
Many of the educational institutions focused on knowledge acquisition at the expense of skills development and attitude formation, she said.
“As a result, most of our graduates lack the basic skills required for entrepreneurial undertaking, which ultimately increases unemployment.”
“Again, most of the social vices such as corruption, ruthless exploitation of our natural resources and the lack of relevant attitudes such as honesty, respect for nature, service with integrity are as a result of the lack of holistic education.”
Ms Damali advised parents to focus not only on academic excellence but also on the attitudes and skills development of their children.
“Yes, we need the president but we need the labourer too, we can’t all become lawyers, the doctors must sit in a clean environment and there must be somebody responsible for that,” she said.
She urged parents to play their roles as expected to ensure the holistic development of their children.
Mrs Emelia Agbenyenu, the Director of HRIS, said the school was established in a pandemic year, 2021, and had gone through interesting yet challenging phases in its inception and opening.
“It is making great efforts to inculcate values along with academic and co-curriculum activities into the pupils,” she said.
GNA