¶ Intro / Opening
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¶ Podcast Introduction and Purpose
Hi, thank you for being here and welcome to season one, episode one of the Less Dalk Education Podcast. Beyond getting informed, the goal of this podcast is to influence action too. comes in diverse ways. So to accomplish this goal, each episode will have some suggested action points to get us taking action. In this first episode Talking about why we go to school. We start with an education quote, get
And end with some suggested action points. My name is Steven Titagan, your host, and this is Let's Doc Education.
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¶ Reflecting on Education's True Meaning
And now, dedication quotes for this episode. Education is what remains. What one has learnt in school. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learnt in school.
Take a moment to reflect on what this code means to you. Do you agree that something about it?
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We want to start
¶ Traditional and Colonial Education in Ghana
Governments and policy makers. But before that, we can look at some historical perspective, zooming into Ghana.
So in the case of Ghana, what we had before um contact with European influences is uh what
And the institution of schools where we have built and where people go to to study were non existent.
took up the responsibility of training children in religion, in culture and customs, traditions and the uh
The main goal effects in the quarter of St. We will be called homosculation. People education, the simple purpose you should go to. Yeah. So a family of fishes of Of course, if a tad one A porter, a trader, what have you. So the person would be seven or be working directly with someone who they want rely on for their unemployment. So we see that traditional African education had two main purposes and the first
informed, knowing their history, their language forms, their music, their dance, their culture, their traditional values. So training people to become useful to society in a particular field of occupation, be it farming, fishing, pottery, goldsmith or something of a sort.
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So that is with traditional Now following this period we saw the beginning of schooling. Especially with Christianity. And the goal of this form of education was to Not only indoctrination. which standardise the population, but also to produce low level manpower in the form of clicks, messengers. to advance trade and also to uh give literacy education to or colonial administration.
¶ Post-Colonial Education and National Goals
Now after colonialization The first Ghanaian led education acts of nineteen sixty-one under Kwamen Koma aimed to, among others, prepare citizens to provide skilled labor for the government's accelerated development plan. Now, schooling was a means of national integration, and one of the things that government sought to do was to find ways to
Teachers would be posted to regions that they were not born in, so they can integrate. And secondary school children would also be posted in other regions, they have to move from one. And so the government was looking for ways to integrate the country and break tribal bounds that may lead into conflict as a way of building national integration. We also saw Education being used.
Equalizer or to bridge a gap by sydd wedi'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i'i a particular period of time and we also saw the extension of free education to the northern part of the country to bridge that gap, which in some form continues to exist still.
¶ Multilayered Reasons for Schooling
We go right into the reasons for going to school, which can be looked at from the international, national family and individual level. Now at the international level which is more uh contemporary or more recent, we've seen the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals that shapes international development and politics.
Now, currently we have concepts like global citizenship, climate change, education, tolerance, pluralism, and some of these international agendas trickles down into the kind of policies and curriculum that is tough. schools and so we see uh a much or some intention towards these values. At the national level education uh may be used by the government to
propagate or to push some particular agenda. Uh sometimes it can be about patriotism, it can be about raising people who are tolerant, people who are pluralist in their view, people who have the development agenda of the country um at the their forefront or they are concerned about the development of their country. So sometimes so it's about what path the the government is taking. And so the government is shifting towards industrialization, some kind of technological wave.
It's driven by its policies and trickles down in school in terms of what subjects or what curriculums are taught in school to accomplish what objective. Now at a family level there may be different reasons for different families taking their children to school. Some of them is as simple as bringing some prestige or reputation to the family to feel that oh uh we an educated family or we are a family of people who have received education.
Especially in colonial times, people who received education were usually royals, and so there was some prestige or reputation that comes with. Being able to speak English, going to school, having some educational qualifications. So some it's just about prestige. And for some families it's about some form of economic investment so that rather than probably uh stay in the house or do
find another uh job. People feel like we are taking a child to school so that they can get some white colour job or they can grow um their knowledge in a particular field in other that it brings some financial returns to the family. Sometimes too it's just about the family having a business or an organization or some form of company and so the family is trying to raise some of its members to take over to run that business. Which belongs to the family.
At the individual level of course this is usually determined by the individual but sometimes it's just about exploring one's interest in a particular field of of study. And sometimes it's also about getting training into a profession where people would want to pursue a career in, say, journalism. And so they are looking for ways to go to school to lend the skills that is associated with journalism.
There are times that you would also go to school because you have some interest in the field or just want to explore an interest. subject in the humanities and and social sciences do not necessarily aim to raise professionals. So a typical example is when people meet someone who is a political science graduate. There's an assumption that wow, if you read political science in school, you must be a politician.
But you know, the course of political science for example is training people and giving them some theoretical knowledge to understand governance systems, political theories and things like that, but not necessarily preparing them to become uh politicians, which would be a more professional form of training. Beyond this that has been mentioned, there are people who just want to go to school for the reputation and the self esteem that it comes with. People would see education as a means of self.
actualization which applies more to higher education. There are people who want to earn a master's degree or get a PhD so that they can feel that yes, I've gotten there or yes, I've I'm somebody just to add some kind of reputation. So we realize that the reasons why people go to school may differ and may be in different levels, but generally people go to school to prepare themselves into a profession or to get a job after they complete school. People go to school
as a means of character development or some form of cultural acquisition. Sometimes it's just about the interest and the joy of acquiring knowledge. And sometimes it's about some form of civic education or citizenship education. in which the government passes through learners through the the curriculum. Th there are interesting questions that would go into regarding going to school and would get into that after this break.
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¶ Diverse Views on Education's Purpose
And also learn some social life skills. When I say social life skills I mean In school we are being taught how to relate well. And so these skills go a long way in helping us in our future life.
My name is Ali Ilyasu, a STEM educator. I believe that we go to school to discover our individual selves, learn more about the society in which we and others live in and better understand our natural environment. Ultimately, I think this knowledge is meant to equip us to create value for ourselves, society and the natural environment.
My name is Kat and I am a teacher. I believe we go to school to enable us to become informed and caring critical thinkers, allowing us to move into society and become responsible, active and purposeful citizens, both locally and in the global context.
My name is Sandra Edo and I'm a teacher. We go to school because we'd like to gain more knowledge and get new friends. And also get access to opportunities that comes with education.
My name is Harmony. So on the issue on why we go to school, the reason why we go to school is to acquire knowledge to improve upon our self-development as individuals.
Also, the school helps us develop interest in various curricular and extracurricular activities, which gives us informed decisions when it comes to choosing a lifetime career. Furthermore, As human beings, the school helps us build on our social and analytical skills, which will enable us to make constructive criticisms to societal happenings.
hands preparing us for a greater future in some way. I will leave you with this quote from Malcolm X. It states that education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow it belongs to those who prepare for it today.
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Oh yeah.
¶ Actionable Steps for Educational Stakeholders
So these are four action points uh for last year.
The first thing is for individual. For going to school, we've established The walls of school before we start the journey of schooling, it's important for us to begin to reflect on why we are going to school. Why do I want to go? It's starting and ref starting to reflect on why would give us some f focus and help us to be intentional about uh education. Another thing that's...
To have discussions that allow people to reflect on why they are in school and just continuously bringing students back to the after school would have them to be more goal-oriented. school which would maybe change from time to time but it's also important to If you're parent or you're listening, you to let your child know The different reasons why people This are some of the pathways. This is what I may be getting and this is
to do. So parents need to discuss what their wishes for their children and they try to find a common And the last thing which is uh more broad is for governments to provide clear And so if someone is going to school for the purple if this is what you want from school, then this is the path that you choose, this is where you go And I think I'm excited that the new curriculum allows people at some point to decide if they want to pursue some extra or go ahead.
education or they want to go into a more technical vocational or a job related field where they get So these are I'm signing out now. This is Tavin Tatagan, your host, and this is Lester Clay.
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