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 

Sex - Key to knowledge (II)

I have come to believe that the world basically revolves around sex, hence my affinity to the Freudian school of thought which postulates that, the existence of the libido is the underlying subconscious energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which also generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt. You would realize that almost everything we do as humans are directed at sex and if you think otherwise, then our worlds must be apart.

Sex with all kinds of accolades plays a lot of roles in our lives; it eases pain, reduces anxiety, heals us, and gives us joy and many more I cannot list and will always come calling, as long as our systems are functional. 

Is it any wonder our generation connote every object or even ideas to sex? Almost everything now has a sex appeal, e.g. cars are now sexy, dresses are sexy, we have human figures which are sexy and those that are not for both genders. Motorbikes comes sexily done, not to talk about houses, our postures, gestures and just anything.

Our wise generation discovered miseducation and everything went haywire. Ladies, now spend all their time pursuing non-practical education for a Certificate; a mere printed paper whose lost can be replaced by an attestation and at the expense of their biological developments, signs and warnings which is irreplaceable by any sustainable method known by man. 

Formal education as a social value has eroded the science of nature which is dictated by all the changes we undergo as humans; changes that cannot be altered in any way whatsoever. 

Since no one can actually cheat nature in its entirety, young men and women are not able to ignore their heat feelings, so somehow, they find ways to gratify sex but only for sensual reasons thus pleasure, when they ought to have been married and if possible, still pursuing their miseducation. And since sex for any reason other than propagative purposes primarily will only result in pain, sickness, sorrow and death, our generation is having its fair share of all the above.

Young ladies are always queued up to carry out abortions of pregnancies they could have kept while most of them are busily educating themselves notwithstanding the fact that they still fail in the end and others end up losing their womb which brings about untold hardships and its related misery.

Both young men and women are contracting venereal diseases every hour thus failing themselves and society as a whole in the process, and all these comes with depression, not to talk about its rippling effects. Our generation will surely discourage and possibly laugh at an 18 year old girl who wants to marry. She would be asked if she knows what she is getting herself into. She would be asked to narrate all she knows about love, as if, that is what it should necessarily take. The person is responding to the biological changes in her system like menstruating periodically, the need for companionship and the need to be sexually satisfied and you talking about love? 

Sex has plunged many individuals and nations into destruction. Scandals in sex has brought many respectable men on their knees and brought untold hardships on them. Many embittered people are prowling in our society calling themselves broken-hearted just because their partners have refused to have sex with them any longer or have initiated sex with another person who eventually has come to occupy their space. 

People are killing others everyday because they have either perceived or found out that their partners are having sex with others and by now you cannot underestimate the power of sex and all the thoughts it provokes in our minds. It will interest you to note that, most issues that emanate from marital relationships all revolves around sex. Either the man wants more or less of sex to which the other partner is not enthused about or one of them is having it elsewhere or both.

You must be out of your senses if you have been underestimating sex anyway. Whether you are religious or an atheist, sex comes with a burden most people cannot carry especially if you fail to have it for the right reasons which is propagation.

God in his ten commandments given to Moses emphatically commanded Christians not to either commit fornication or adultery which outrightly bars the unmarried from having sex and I am wondering how you have fared with these two commandments or probably, it’s just one of those fictional stories and should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Indiscriminate sex certainly has its consequences and no one can escape it even in the long run. Sex is an energy which must not be toyed with and if you are wondering how energetic sex can be, then watch how semen from a sex encounter metamorphoses a woman until she delivers another human being who becomes an extension of his family of procreation with an almost striking resemblance to its parents.

A friend of mine, Kofi Wilson, in a discussion sometime ago gave me an enlightened perspective on sex which has lingered on my mind for some time now. He sought to say, everyone has been bestowed with immense power or energy which is represented by sex or reproductive organs or even the number of sex we will have. As generative as sex is, every sex should be directed at propagating ourselves i.e. to multiply our empires to help us fight when the Armageddon war starts (Rev 16:16) 

We are supposed to be multiplying like the sand at the shore as instructed by God, our Creator, but the famed serpent whose encounter with Eve changed everything has managed to introduce to us, family planning methods, contraceptives, condom usage and other means of averting that generative force from coming into fruition. It doesn’t want us to be ready for the war. The serpent wants us to be powerless, frail, pathetic and hopeless soldiers even before the start of the war.

All other things being equal, if sex can bring forth another human being which becomes a force to reckon with, then, do you know how much energy in the form of human that you have been wasting which you might be compelled to account for someday?

Do you know how many other human beings you could have surrounded yourself with, with all the generative force which you have turned into a pleasure expedition and the pills you have been popping?

God must be very displeased with us but we can turn around and safeguard what is left of our curse where pain, humiliation, sorrow, sickness and eventual death will be our portion.

generative faculty. Let us stop using it as a means to an end. Let’s stop using it as collateral for school and hostel fees. Let’s not give it out for a film premiering at Silverbird or to make a fantasy come to fruition. Let’s stop using it as a means to securing a vacancy slot. Let’s also stop the practice of using what we have to get what we want because the only thing we should want from what we have is a child, lest we remain in our

If you know all about sex and respond to it accordingly but cannot stay without it, then get married and have it as much as you want so that you can also fall within the divine plan and probably get ready for the war.

Sex - Key to Knowledge (I)

Inarguably, almost everyone who has attained the age of puberty and beyond has something to say about sex, because we all know a thing or two about the pervasive act which has being with us since the days of Adam. Sex will not leave us anytime soon and anything short of its practice whether on legal, health or moral basis is bound to see the procreation of man come to an end and by extension, extinction of the human race and any living thing that procreates through mating.

For the records, I would like to state that, this piece has a religious underlining and my own conviction which must not necessarily corroborate anyone’s thought or otherwise. I want to be solely responsible for everything herein to avoid the seeing-is-believing bunch of die-hards who will ask me to show them empirical evidence. I am also grateful for the source literature which sparked up the interest to write this piece on sex, but if you ever decide to read beyond this piece, then my article is premised on the Bible in the book of Genesis Chapters 2:16 & 17 and 3:1-20 for your own perusal.

The first time I heard someone relating the famous tree of knowledge of good and evil to sex, I asked him to stop right there because the novice that I was, thought him a blasphemous goon to which I was not going to be a part of and this was in the mid 90’s when I was in Secondary School but some years on, my conviction about the sex theory has grown more than that guy who was probably just saying.

Simply put, the bible which is the embodiment of truth is and cannot be comprehensible to everyone thus the perplexity that comes with its comprehension through generations before us and the ones to follow. The bible in its simple state is as well the most complex of books that has been authored by man. No, men of God! And it explains why the boy retorted to me “were you expecting them to say, they had sex?” Intriguing!

Why is it hard for us to believe that Adam and Eve had sex anymore than we can believe that it was literally a tree named a ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil?  Has the tree become extinct? How come we don’t have any more of those species of trees anymore? 

Either we were told lies or the teachers didn’t know anymore than the students they professed to have been teaching and some of these discoveries which falls outside our syllabi and other accepted ways of doing things make me look back and ponder over our system. Either the conspiracy theory rages on or too many ignorant people are placed in authoritative positions by other ignorant people who misguides and misdirects us. No wonder, my visual representation of apple until recently has always been Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden clad in their loin cloths; Eve extending a bitten apple to Adam.

To the best of my knowledge, sex is the key to knowledge without which, one is considered as innocent. Sex is one of the yardsticks for measuring Knowledge that is why people are considered to have entered a different phase of life when they marry – the ideal time to have sex and it is also worthy to note that sex is primarily for procreation.

Most of us had our perceptions about life changed the first time we had sex. Everything became different and in most cases, we felt afraid, grown and arrived. Well, that is how we started discovering knowledge which mainly constitutes good and evil and admittedly, we also discovered pain, sorrow and sickness.

Hitherto the eating of the fruit of the mythical tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were espoused to be good; the former chasing after animals and naming them and the latter strolling in other parts of the Garden until she met ‘the serpent’, where they exercised their creative functions independently of God’s directive and there and then, they knew instantly that, they were naked and almost aware of their very existence and the emphasis is on Knowledge.

Remember, they were admonished to stay away from that tree, yet they disobeyed God. They thought outside the box and became aware of stellar influences which they were previously unaware of. They have become all knowing soon after eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Knowledge seekers already know that knowledge brings us pain and sorrow but also comes with inestimable blessings of emancipation from outside influence and guidance, so it came to pass that, Adam and Eve were cursed which was not necessarily a curse but an expression or a simple statement of the resultant effect of their creative function they exercised.

Is it a curse to tell your Son who is now of age to shoulder responsibilities upon assumption of manly status evidenced by his impregnation of a woman? They are just consequences of your action.

They had sex and even though it was disobedient to God, the generative force brought about childbirth which was followed by God’s curse which was merely the consequences of their thinking outside the box. They probably did not wait for God’s directive to eat of the tree or in plain terms, to have sex but was God going to ask them to eat it someday? Wouldn’t it have been illusive, well, until manifested?

Doesn’t our society punish us for not falling in line? Society chastises anyone who thinks outside the box until something different and sustainable is discovered or unearthed. They come as defiant and labeled as deviants for not heeding to the existing norms but again it is the only way new things are created.  

Just like God told Adam and Eve that the eating from the knowledge tree would result in their death (maybe spiritually) which did not come to pass, it is in same vein society spells to us all kinds of consequences that could befall us should we do something that does not fall within the box. Mostly, the daring ones who go beyond the threshold as we have come to know only discover a new form of beauty.

Had man remained a God-guided automation, he would not have known sickness, pain or death till this day; but would have lacked the brain consciousness and independence which resulted from the enlightenment by the serpent who opened his understanding and taught him to use his then dim vision to gain knowledge of his world which he was already destined to conquer.

You would recall that before man’s enlightenment, he had not known sickness, pain nor death but all resulted from the unwise use of the propagative faculty and its abuse for the gratification of the senses.

Sex is a generative force which if used ignorantly or for other purposes primarily becomes responsible for our pain, sorrow and sicknesses. Sex cannot be used as way of killing boredom neither should it be used as a means of pursuing pleasure. Sex (organs) as a function is designed solely for the perpetration of species and under no circumstances for the gratification of sensual desire.

As higher order primates, we naturally and primarily get most things done wrongly because of our emotions which results in our desires, other than how things should be, as evidenced in our altering of almost everything and now anal sex by gays.

Animals in their wild state are exempt from sickness and pain because their propagation is not influenced by emotions and desires but carried under the care and direction of the wise cosmic spirit at only those times of the year which are propitious to that process just like most women feel for sex before, during or after their menstrual periods. 

Nowadays, people practically arrange to have sex without being on heat or just have sex at will and it is this unwise use of the propagative faculty and its abuse for sensual gratification of the senses that has brought untold hardships on us individuals and the generation as a whole.

It was not unwise of our forefathers to marry their daughters and Sons off in their puberty when their reproductive organs became matured. The older folks knew that, their libidos will be naturally aroused from time to time and failure to satisfy it could just result in sickness, a form of pain, neglect or masochism over a period of time thus the ease and convenience of marrying them off to have sex as and when their heat mechanism is activated.

An open letter to all Parents

Dear Parents, 

Today is my birthday and to actually commemorate and celebrate the day to its fullest, I have decided to engage you, a dear parent, to highlight on certain issues that are pertinent and relatable to nurturing a child and its dependent growth and progression in life. 

You may start asking yourself what my birthday has to do with the attention I want from you, but,

since I did not erupt from any big bang theory but from your nurturing and guidance till date, I deem it necessary to invite you to this table for reconciliation and to discuss the way forward. As a parent, I know your schedule hardly leaves you time to engage in frivolous ventures like this one, so, I will quickly enumerate my essence of communiqué.

Firstly, I want to believe that most children are conceived out of expectations, hence an array of relatively good plans are arraigned before the child by the parents to enable him or her to grow into a good member of the society and at large, but it is also worthy to note that, children usually have minds of their own and has plans to that effect. What they mostly require from you is guidance and not compulsion to be what you want them to be. 

Compulsion from Parents to their children during school or subject selections or even where their interests are directed only goes a long way to destroy or alter the child’s ego and self-esteem which definitely daunts on him all the days of his life unless otherwise. There is no gainsaying that thoughts of children are infantile and not guarded by experience but as a parent, what you have to do is to discover what his interests are skewed towards, so you can help him nurture it to probably excel in that chosen endeavor.

Chances are that s/he will resent you and all the authorities that sought to rein him and probably alter his purview of what the world should be if you compel him to do anything that will be daunting on him when s/he finally grows up and can make relevant choices for himself, because often times, they are ridiculed and called all sort of names like a moron, a loser and hopeless by their friends or sometimes teachers in ‘your’ chosen interest which can destroy another fine soul for life.

Dear Parent, I need you to note that education is a necessity for our existence as a people but schooling is not a mandate for us. Everyone can get educated in any chosen field be it formally or informally and that child who is not necessarily your child but an individual with a purpose on earth will be on his way to discovering something unprecedented at least within his society.

Every Child is special in his own way and some of them are not enthused about academic laurels and this does not necessarily mean that s/he is dumb. For all you know, his interests are in mechanics, the Sciences (just like we have illiterates manufacturing cars), music, the arts, cookery or just anything which is worth pursuing. And as evidenced in this context, s/he may have failed in class, but certainly not in life. All the child needs to grow in leaps and bounds is love and encouragement to unearth that hidden potential you have failed to see.

Thirdly, I would encourage you as a parent to equip yourself with some child psychology. Please get to know how children think and probably, that may smoothen some of the feuds and lessen your expectation from him. 

Fourthly, I would also like to admonish you to propose the idea of a child psychologist in your child’s school to help him when he gets lost in his world and that of others’. Child Psychologists are missing in most of the Government and Public Schools but prevalent in the private and the Montessori’s and it is time your child also gets to enjoy the services and interactions of someone who has in-depth knowledge about children and the processes they go through as they grow.

You have failed your child all these years because all you do at the Parent-teacher Association (P.T.A) meetings is to bargain and deliberate on their school fees and when next they are going to pay their fees. You don’t know the essence of a child psychologist yourself, hence your inability to even suggest it at the numerous P.T.A’s meetings you have attended. 

A child Psychologist like any member of staff is essential on the school’s pay roll and must be a full time venture because children are mostly at crossroads as to what to do and unfortunately, most of you parents are not friends to these kids but just a parent. You feed them, get them their essentials and tell them what to do until they cease to listen to you anymore and that is unfortunate. You can only relate to your child as a friend if you stop treating or seeing him as your child. Please, the only way you can respect him, ask for his opinions or even give him informed consent is, when you regard him as an individual rather than ‘your’ child. 

It will also be a step in the right direction if as parents, you come together to write to Ghana Education Service to introduce Child psychologists or institute counseling units in your children’s school because children from the environs even have psychological problems than those uppities who have access to these professionals 24/7 and that can start a revolution in our slums and ghettos because regardless of where one is coming from, s/he will be guided and guarded by professional care givers who knows what to do.

There are so many teachers out there who are at post because they have to work and earn or just at post because they have no other option. Some of them have broken dreams, no sense of worth or in near-divorces or even in abusive relationships and it will be unfortunate to leave your children in their care without cross-checking what goes into their schooling exercises.

Additionally, most of these teachers have no fore-knowledge about children’s problems or their

uniqueness thereof or forget to note that they are teaching troubled kids where they could approach them with tact. They just lump them together and regrettably compare the slow learners to that of the fast learners thus distorting their ego and self-esteem which is why they, like any other, needs a counseling unit in the school. It is essential to note that counseling is not for only the married or those who are about to marry. It is to help build their psyche and mental well-being to make their minds stable for receptive studies otherwise his sense of appreciation will be lost and that is a problem you may not be able to contain in the near future.

 

Importantly, I know you often don’t know where your child is at what time just because you and your child do not have any agreed schedule by which s/he should go by and probably because you run a busy schedule. Most parents are close to 100% knowledgeable about where their children could be located because they know, s/he will be watching a favorite program on TV at a certain time, see his or her extra classes teacher at another given time and when s/he is scheduled for bible classes and what have you and that is in the right direction. 

Dear Parent, Chances are that, if you mostly don’t know where your child is at what time, even in absentia, s/he is doing drugs, being abused by some friends who needn’t be around him/her or learning something you are not bound to approve. Please, engage you children and teach them the way they should go otherwise, be prepared to be resented when they grow. Negligence is the reason why most people don’t have cordial relationships with their parents because as people, we learn in retrospect and they get to know that you failed in your duty to actually do the right thing.

Finally, interact with your child and ask his opinions in almost everything with an open mind, even if it won’t be used as a working material and you will see what an outspoken champion or individual you are nurturing, just because you allow him to see the world through his eyes and not that of your lenses. Please, allow the child to carry his own cross and not that of yours, lest you crush his spirit and eventually shut the small enthusiasm he has left.

It is rightly so, because expectations, penchants, aspirations, desires and dreams varies from person to person, so implicitly imposing your expectations on the child (eg. To become a lawyer, Doctor, Pilot etc) because of the competition out there would not augur well for us and be reminded that the likes of Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein and many more were labeled social misfits not knowing they were actually thinking outside the box thus seeing what no one on their timeline could see. In other words, your child could be ahead of his time whose imagination must be allowed to soar, after all knowledge is knowledge whether it can be written or not.