Monday 26 October 2015

The doomwatcher's almanac

So, I was having a random chat with Ringo, the other day, and we came up with some interesting observations about people and society which I would gladly share with you in a jiffy. But before I indulge you further I think it is expedient to introduce you, my dear reader, to Ringo; my imaginary friend who is always there when I need to dilate on issues.  And just before you go off the tangent that Mynah - the talking bird, is at it again, I would like to preempt your mind that, unlike you, who doesn’t have the time when I am ready to engage, Ringo is always there to interact.
 
It’s funny how most people think they are the last link in the human chain, thus placing too much
importance on themselves or even on their watch. For a moment, we become susceptible to all kinds of hogwash, making us believe we are at the tail end of the world and by extension the end of human history. Is it not interesting when some folks express their disgust about how the world has or is coming to an end when bad and turbulent times come around? 

Conclusively, some will die en masse every time a catastrophe befalls us which doesn’t mean that the world has come to an end. No! The world survived the holocaust; it even survived the great flood that saw only a handful survive, so what more can come? At most, you might fall a victim directly or indirectly but come tomorrow, the sun will still rise from the East and set in the West. People will work, eat, merry and have sex to procreate, except you, who would have become a part of the statistics, which is sometimes exaggerated for future generations to read, thanks to Historians.

As generational cohorts, we are not fine as it seems but it’s just our fair share of trouble and disaster being dished out to us. After all, dread has always characterized generations before us, except ours are highly sophisticated and cancerous; sometimes through the simple administering of a pint of a deadly chemical and the plunging of a syringe or even a nuclear bomb. It’s even more deadlier when you think of suicide bombers and viral infections such as Ebola on the other hand.

But whether these stories of conspiracy are personal or polemical, perspectives or allegorical, it would be in the interest of the reader to see beyond the matrix to see the reality therein, since there’s usually a devil or God in the detail. And while it is hopeful to have solace in the fact that good shall triumph in the end, be however mindful that the world has kind of thrived on terror and trepidation such as Powerhouses fighting against each other for superpowers, tales of big stones raining from the skies to end our existence in such a morbid manner, deadly and viral infections that yields to no cure, economic crunches that cannot survive all the economic theories and spiel and wetincallit. So before you go about there spreading rumors of your gullibility that the world is coming to an end, take note of your existence on earth, subtract it from how long the world has existed and the answer is your demise is near, not that of the world.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
writer tweets @vilejah                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Tuesday 13 October 2015

The State of our schools



It’s the aftermath of the annual edition of the JoyFm’s old skul reunion which is also touted as the biggest outdoor program in West Africa and I want to use this opportunity to pat the back of JoyFm who is ostensibly the poster child of the multimedia group of companies based in Accra, for instituting and achieving this feat and to also wade into the national debate of the estranged relationship between Religion and education.

I do not intend to bore you with the history of Schools but once upon a time, Missionaries with all
The Main Gate of Presec boys that leads to a citadel of Knowledge
intents and purpose set foot on our land to evangelize the word of God but decided over time to set up schools to educate the inhabitants of the land to facilitate easy preaching and conversion, then came the government to take over from the Churches, thus rendering them a pale shadows of themselves without a bearing.

Education, as one of the building blocks of society has lately been in the news for all the wrong reasons such as yearly examination malpractices, decline in discipline and excellence - resulting in weaker institutions, inconsistent curricula, devaluing of our certificates outside the shores of the land, unwilling and unqualified tutors due to inadequacy and unattractiveness of the teaching profession and now a political tool in the hands of the Politicians which often results in unbridled strike actions, probably due to neglect from the very people it has helped nurtured into positions of repute and also because the government has decided to micromanage the schools including the very ones that were built by and through the toil of Churches.

The government then intruded the educational system as it were through regulation which eventually neutralized and accorded every player in the educational terrain an equal status to probably drive home the fact that we are all equal, before the Law and even before God. Maybe, we should be thanking the Government for whipping us into congruence. Nevertheless, I do not think we are all the same and wields equal status like they try to impress upon us simply because I see and commune with different sorts of people in my everyday walks of life and have seen enough to still frolic in the idea of all of us being the same. However, whoever thinks that we are all equal can revel in their delusion.

In every society, continuity is of essence - to preserve their cultural orientations and beliefs, to at least give them a false sense of permanence.  This permanence or any effort at instilling it is not hewed out of frivolity but often arrived at out of practical convictions have become one of the very reasons why humans will procreate to continue their race. I also believe it is in the same vein that religious entities instituted schools to indoctrinate their very owns and other affiliates who find their way to their doorsteps.

Muslims and Christians with their varied sects such as the Catholics, the Wesleyans, The Presbyterians, the Anglicans and even some latter day churches, through their mission schools have produced a chunk of excellent individuals who have metamorphosed into giant brands and sometimes, with a lot of followings. Then came in too much liberation and the equality argument without recourse to the preambles and purposes of why the mission schools were built in the first place turned up a notch higher. 

All persons, regardless of their creed were allowed anywhere but should they not be compelled to abide by the tenets of the accommodating institution?

Personally, Muslims and traditionalists who have no school anyway can attend the mission schools if they wish to be nurtured by the indoctrinating school of their choice and vice versa, but such individuals must be compelled to go the full haul to align to the spirit and letter of the Church or their schools thereof. And rightfully so, to continue breeding legions of soldiers who are without a doubt the future of the Church and an extension of its doctrines to ultimately fulfill the purpose of establishing the Church. 

But what do we see?

The St. Augustine's Administration block in its full glory
Pockets of infidels found their ways into these mission schools and have over time become cystic and protected by the law through their fundamental human rights that they can even haul a whole institution to a battle of wits at the courts of Law. The mission schools have now become pale shadows of themselves because discipline which invariably is/was a key to breeding near excellence is no more. Students are not even caned any longer or where necessary it cannot exceed six. 

Methinks, if the powers that be do not have a problem with these churches or cannot impugn on their existence and their indoctrination thereof, then these churches should be allowed to build their own schools as an appendage to train students accordingly. These Churches also have a need for permanence which requires them to spread their tentacles and by extension, their dominance. 

To think that religious and moral education have been expunged from the curricula has only made the government’s efforts at neutralizing and thwarting the objective of the mission schools too blatant. Government should both build its own school and make it free education or whatever political gains they stand to derive from their gimmick and leave the religious schools to operate since their mother churches have been allowed to fester. Better still, the government should leave the administration and its bearing in the hands of the Churches and if need be, regulate it from the fringes. We all know now what it means to say that government has taken over schools as it is so evident in how educational standards have fallen to their lowest ebb but the question is why and how does government take over all the religious schools in the first place?

Thus far, it is even convenient to say that it was imprudent of the government to take over these schools because it doesn’t seem to be making meaningful strides. At most, education is even a distraction on government’s plate, looking at how they are still toying with what a senior high school curriculum should entail and look like? If a lot was achieved through crude and not-so-smart ways of doing things in terms of storing and availing data or textbooks in the past with the Churches in charge, why can’t we mobilize, plan and execute our agendas in this day and age where schools now take pride in websites?

 Writer tweets @vilejah