ABLOTSI

The word Ablotsi I think is losing its mystery and the awe that comes with it among the Ghanaian populace, manifesting the fact that globalization is working around the clock to bring us together except that we are still separated by miles and miles of oceans.

Apparently anybody who went to Ablotsi or returned were highly respected and even revered as if they were gods but it is no more so. Just a look at the person distinguished him or her from the Ghanaman who has not been anywhere beyond the shores of Ghana but lately, you have to either tag yourself as such or introduce yourself to have returned from beyond the shores of Ghana to be noticed and even in some extreme cases, you have to convince the average Ghanaman.

Hitherto, they carried bottled water about, yes because drinking our ‘hard’ water contaminated their system and rendered their stay unpleasant. It instantly made them sick so they frequented the few restaurants we had in town but thankfully to globalization, it is no more so. They even ordered their menu of Fufu, Kenkey, Banku, Atsek3, Agbeli kaklo among others even before emplaning to the motherland.

Apart from the difference in the weather where they constantly have four seasons compared to our one and half season of sunny weather and the rainy season taking the half,  and a few other things, I can confidently say we are closing the ranks and the disparity between our family and friends in Ablotsi .

Gone were the days when fashion, music and information in the Diaspora were light years ahead of us but things have changed dramatically. Lately, we even have the privilege to witness the launch of the music or watch them parade in the fashion in vogue. Folks could order whatever they want through the internet or other alternative means available.

One thing I have noticed missing or have not seen in a while is the deportation of the Ghanaman, wow! I remember one guy who was deported from the states when I was growing up. Nobody saw him arrive, he came home under the cover of darkness and stayed indoors for a while until he decided to come out from his comfort zone. I could tell how embarrassing and heartbreaking it was for him with regards to his aspirations, dreams and any other things that motivated him to embark on the journey in the first place coming to an abrupt naught.

Do you remember ashibri shibri kontomire Am sure, you do and that one too is gone with the wind, can’t even be retrieved from the recycle bin. That was how their accent were perceived to have sounded because we hardly understood what they were saying and am sure some were also playing on our intelligence but now we all speak same and the difference is no more clear-cut. Thank God for advancement in technology.

And the perceived civilization is being bridged with alacrity. Every Ghanaian family can now boast of a family member in Ablotsi unlike some years back when only some members of our society were privileged to have travelled or have the privilege to go beyond the shores of Ghana. Just drive on our streets in the city and you will see imported goods, no I mean ‘deported’ goods being sold in every nook and cranny ranging from plates, chamber pots, mattress, underwear,  spoons, bicycles, cardboards and what have you. Is it not a joy when you see all these borla goods being sold in a ploy to bridge the gap between the Ghanaman and the people living in the Diaspora?

The days of communication centres cannot be overlooked because it also played a major role. A friend, Family or an acquaintance will have to notify you days, weeks or months ahead of an impending call which made you ready and waiting. Sometimes you see the whole family at the Comm. Centre waiting for the call of their kin and can you imagine the stampede that ensued when the call finally comes through? Your guess is as good as mine.  Sometimes, the receiver has to trek about two miles to the nearest Comm. Centre and it was all good. But now, your phone could be ringing and you are not bothered to even know who is calling because you know you will soon call back after what you were doing, impressive!

Who says we are not getting there? Apart from the information and news we read in the magazines, in the movies, in the newspapers  and on the internet,  we all have classmates, Kins and other members of society calling us on daily basis and we doing likewise and telling us stories about their experiences in the Diaspora. Some people even travel to and fro about twice in a week and you say wetin?

Do I hear this green paper stuff lately? Maybe blue paper is even making up for the green paper because everyone seems to be at ease once they travel out. Somehow they manage to get one and very soon, the Embassies will even be evacuated on our soil or be streamlined to only be a source of information centre where you could just go and seek for information.

Do you also remember when even family members travelled without your knowledge with the hindsight that a certain witch or wizard might just counter cross them and impede their travel? Well, I just got my Visa and should be travelling out soon; I just pray that when I get there, the weather should be favourable to me and as for the food, they have a lot of Ghanaian foods in the African markets more than we even have here in Ghana so I hope to fit in even before I land at the Airport so if you don’t see me around, I am gone to Ablotsi

GRADING THE MP's...

Once again, Steve Mallory is out with his Political performance Index (PPI) on our Parliamentary members making it the second in two years and am thinking it is going to be an annual exercise. Grading systems are good for any institution down to individuals because with the hindsight that you will be graded at a stipulated time makes you diligent in your endeavor and also elicits a degree of commitment depending on what your motivation is and even the legacy you seek to leave behind for your audience or predecessors.

There are calls from social commentators and the Parliamentarians themselves downplaying the credibility of the Performance Index system and some even admonishing the public to treat it with the contempt it deserves. I do not think it’s much of a problem because they have good reasons that may be warped in your opinion or otherwise. Some are questioning the authenticity of the whole exercise with regards to the methods employed at arriving at the final grades.

There are several research methods with regards to what you are researching on and among the myriads of methods available are Experimental, Observational, Descriptive, Correlational, Surveys, Questionnaires, Developmental methods among others. And all these research methods like any other field of discipline have ethics governing them and anything short of the conventions and policies thereof renders your results or findings null and unacceptable.

The objective of the Descriptive research method is to describe how things happen e.g. ‘how do birds mate?’, The second being Correlational seeks to find how two variables are related or are dependent on each other for functioning, example, ‘Are men’s horniness dependent on their relationships with females?’.  Experimental methods and Developmental research methods which has cross-sectional, longitudinal, sequential and micro-genetic methods as sub-methods also seeks to know how changes occur as the years passes by and its related ethics. Some of the ethics are informed consent, debriefing, doing no harm to your subjects, naming your source of sponsorship and outlining the objective of your research.

Not to bore you with all these scientific underlinings but which also forms the basis of my essay and every research, Steve Mallory and his AfricaWatch Magazine has to avail to us how they came by the results which forms the debriefing aspect of the ethical principles governing every research. They also have to tell us if they used the Observational, Interview or Survey methods to come by these results. The validity of the results is also questionable since they will not detail us on their research.

I do not think it should be treated with the contempt it deserves but I think the institution should be taken on because the Parliament is the highest legislative body on our land and to think that a group of individuals somewhere can make mockery of it anytime they like is no joke. It is also alleged that he declined the invitation extended to him after his first release by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee which to me is an affront to the eminent house.

Having said that, why are the Parliamentarians ranting about the grades they were awarded if it’s a sham? Why are they so worked up if they think these grades are not valid? What have they achieved in their constituencies to think that they are undeserving of those grades? Almost all of them have performed abysmally and do not deserve a second term. They are just playing on our innocence because they are immuned by the laws of the land and cannot be subjected to account to the electorates what they have been doing to be paid by the tax-payer’s money. We did not elect them to legislate on our behalves but rather to champion the developmental agendas from the constituencies they represent.

For the Regional Ministers, I do not know what they do. Here is a case where a Minister deems it appropriate to go on leave in the face of unrest in his ministry and I wonder if he would have done same if his own company was on the verge of being plunged into an abyss?

Some sections of them want Steve Mallory to be hauled to Parliament to answer questions. It is just a ploy for some of them to acquaint themselves with him so they can be giving him money to grade them favourably that is if he is not going to relent on his bogus research.

There has been so many researches by Think Tanks in the country and no one has asked them to avail their methods and what made up the results because it favoured a group of people. Ex-President Kufuor awarded about 241 men and women with the highest award of our dear nation and no one asked him to avail his criteria for short-listing and eventual selection which saw ‘Agya Koo’ among the awardees. Agya Koo is hilarious but is he the best actor or comedian in the country? I doubt if he is even a comedian.

Recently, the sitting President Atta-Mills decorated about 197 ‘distinguished’ Ghanaians in various fields of endeavour and no one has questioned his selection method but somehow it’s been accepted and life has returned to normalcy, so why is Steve being hauled to the privileges committee?

Is it an issue of what is good for the goose not being good for the gander? Methinks the Parliamentarians must be tasked with a target to achieve in their four year term. They also have to be in touch with their constituencies because by default, they qualify for an Ex-gratia award at the end of the four year term.

Let us as a nation be serious for once and participate in the nation building process because certainly the 309 Politicians are not a repository of knowledge that can steer the nation to where it belongs, and to the Parliamentarians who have distinguished themselves, I say AYEKOO!

Our Falling Education...

There is a decline in the standards of our educational system and its related activities mainly due to the approach by the crop of leaders we have mandated to manage our educational system. I don’t know what their objectives are but I am also sure they are not exercising real influence in the educational sector but rather playing to the gallery.

The educational system is whacked with so many troubles of varying degrees that you are tempted to question the government of the day about the role it is playing to remedy the situation, and this also begs the question, ‘Is the government of the day aware of the troubles at the helm of Ghana Educational Service (GES) and the eventual problems they are creating for us as a nation?”

There were outbursts from all angles and circles of the nation decrying the poor results of our recent graduands from the Junior High School (JHS). From a reliable source, I learnt their performance was so abysmal that some districts scored zero. How is that possible? It would have been as good as abandoning the exams by the said districts. Do they have an educational circuit that is also supervised by another higher circuit? Are the students engaging in self-tuition without a syllabus or what is required of them? I think we have to be serious as a nation right from the top to the base.

There are so many reasons to account for this poor show and if not tackled as an emergency will become a canker and eat into the very fabric of our society because I know and have been told severally that ‘EDUCATION is the KEY’! So if the successive governments will not equip it’s citizenry with the ‘key’ then we are bound to be locked outside sometime soon.

Among the myriads of factors that contribute to the problem are our attitudes to education. The citizenry must be sensitized on the role education plays in the lives of the individuals and collectively as a nation, championed by the government i.e. The Ministry of Education (MoE). Once, that role is defined and clearly cut, all stakeholders will know how to contribute to the success of education in the nation.

Secondly, we have GES officials, Ministers and other state officials whose children are schooling outside the country. My concern is not the fact that, their privileged children are schooling outside but the lackadaisical attitude they have towards educating other peoples’ children. They sit in their high rise offices and dictate to their subordinates without control systems to ensure that these directives are carried out. I don’t know how it works now, but I remember GES officials visiting schools unannounced and timeously which put the teachers on their toes. It created a sense of responsibility in the teachers who owed it a duty to do the right thing.

Supervision is so lax because everybody thinks s/he is doing the other a favor. We have teachers especially the female ones who go to school with bakeries among others to sell in class for the students i.e. meat-pie, cake, rock-buns, kulikuli, ‘conkada’, ice-creams, ‘boflot’ to sell to the students. Sometimes, they have a favorite who they mandate to sell the wares on their behalf, at other times too, all the students are forced to buy these wares even if you have to come and pay the following day. This style of buying by force has forced a number of students from the class and eventually out of the school because; to begin with they do not have the money for such luxuries and also sees it as an imposition and infringement on their rights. In other cases, marks are awarded in class and examinations by your customer goodwill i.e. if you are a regular customer of that teacher.

Some of the teachers carry along other wares like dresses, underwear, panties, pair of shoes and other feminine accessories which they sell among themselves. Students can not pass mostly in the rural areas where lax supervision renders the male teachers drunk before going to the classroom and some absenting themselves in most cases.

A Sound mind is supposed to be in a clean body and its dependent environment but what do we see? Classrooms under trees where concentration becomes a problem, dilapidated buildings are used as classrooms and in some instances; one room is being used by two different classes. Schools buildings are in pathetic states that it does not even encourage effective learning anymore; no wonder teachers refuse to go to such places when posted there.

 The Influx of technology and its affordability have contributed to the problem. Proliferation and liberalization has made it possible for almost every student to own a mobile phone which has become a bane to them. They are either sampling their ringtones or showing-off with their latest tune upload. They are either blue-toothing in class or playing games while their teachers are also enjoying a ‘free call’ or one of those reduced tariff calls to their friends and families as they say. And all of these things do not augur well for students especially below the tertiary level.

Additionally, students now go about with DVD’s and VCD’s in their bags. All they want to do is watch those 40-in-1 DVD’s and copy the lifestyle of the make-believe characters they watch, forgetting that these characters are on set and actually playing the roles of others. They can tell you about which star is dating the other, the last time a star was divorced and almost everything about these characters at the expense of their books. They hardly read books other than their course materials which they only find imperative to read during examinations.  It is very appalling to engage these students in a chat especially the ones from the rural and not too urban areas.

Apart from the children not wanting to do anything educational, they are also left at the mercy of TV sets by their parents. Unlike some years back when all you had was GTV, now we have all kinds of TV namely DSTV, Metro TV, TV3, Multi TV with it’s many channels. All you have to do is name your interest and you will be engrossed in that world of Visuals. Some of them can tell you everything on TV as if they were the program managers.

Most parents are caught up in the system that they hardly stay at home. They do not know what their children do in their absence, how they go about what they do, let alone where they spend their time. There is a saying that ‘if you do not know where your child is at what time, there is the possibility that s/he is indulging in sin’, an activity that will not elicit your approval. Parents have to be responsible for their children’s education and stop giving the lame excuse that they pay school fees for their children to be taught hence teachers should be wholly responsible for their wards.

Furthermore, most teachers feel irresponsible because of the way they are treated. The delay in the payment of salary and the politicking that comes with it, the government’s insensitivity to their plights as compared to other government workers like the Doctors, Engineers, Parliamentarians and others. Everybody is saving lives and should be taken serious. It is wrong to tell them that their rewards are in heaven because I do not see how the heaven gig goes with the atheist teacher. This is simple because if the teacher does not have a peace of mind, s/he can not inculcate the right thing into the student.

I do not seek to recommend what we have to do to curb the anomaly and how discipline can be instilled into the educational sector but rather outline some of the causes that has made it impossible to achieve academic excellence so that you and I can brainstorm how we can come up with answers and push EDUCATION to where it belongs.

I would like to also congratulate all Teachers as the nation celebrates it's 17th National Teachers Awards Day especially Mr. Joshua Amankwa who was adjudged the over all best teacher of our dear nation and to wish them all the best in their chosen career.  I say Ayekooooo!!!