By the very nature of his area of responsibility in government, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo spends most of his time thinking about young people. He should: he is the Minister of Education.
For him, “young people” include even those who are not in school. Mr Tettey-Enyo’s worry is why a large army of young people who should be sitting in classrooms are out visiting mayhem upon an otherwise peaceful country.
He has come to the conclusion that among the main reasons being assigned for the sudden rise in the spate of violence and the general intolerance among the youth, one of the most important is the cultural factor.
He blames it on “the gradual erosion of moral and ethical values” from the society. He was worried that schools were concentrating on the academic aspect of education at the expense of moral education.
As a result, he concludes, “our time tested traditions, rules and respect for authority are being daily overturned”.
The Times agrees with the minister, but we respectfully beg to inform him that his suggestion has come a few years too late.
The truth about Ghana is that the time-tested traditions etc are not “being” overturned; they have been overturned, and there is very little anybody can do about it.
The syllabus for Moral Education is full of platitudes which even the teachers find boring to teach. Our point is that Moral Education is not approached with the practicality which it deserves.
It is the same reason why it is difficult to teach Cultural Studies in Ghanaian schools and expect the children to be culturally inclined, besides being able to dance traditional dances and recite poems about “Mother Africa”.
In the first place, the culture taught in schools is the culture of ancestors who lived more than 500 years ago. They are so irrelevant to modern life and living that the child pays attention only because Cultural and Moral Studies is an examinable subject.
No sooner had they gone home than foreign television and the internet take over, contradicting every word spoken by the teacher in class. The children are impressed by what they see on TV because the foreign values “make sense” to them.
They are also intelligent enough to conclude that the foreign values must be the preferred values because they are being espoused and practiced by the people from whom Ghana imports almost every single product found in their parents’ house.
The children do not know of any Ghanaian (African) heroes – there are none to compare with all the great names in science and technology and even the arts, taught by the teacher. On Ghanaian FM stations, the presenters know and project more foreign than local artistes.
What is worse, the local artistes themselves are trying very hard not to sound or act like Ghanaians: their accents, their mannerisms; their reactions etc are all imitations of foreign artistes. In the greater majority of local (or African Movies), the lifestyle is foreign: it is all about guns and drugs.
The child is impressed that the American or British child could tell his/her father not to be silly; the Ghanaian child, therefore, thinks that it is the norm and nobody should reprimand him for imitating same.
The Ministry of Culture has no answer. Go to the ministry and they will drum and dance in grass skirts till someone gets possessed. That, for them, is culture. The children, in rejecting this culture, have embraced the foreign.
Dear Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, this is how our traditional and moral values got eroded.
For him, “young people” include even those who are not in school. Mr Tettey-Enyo’s worry is why a large army of young people who should be sitting in classrooms are out visiting mayhem upon an otherwise peaceful country.
He has come to the conclusion that among the main reasons being assigned for the sudden rise in the spate of violence and the general intolerance among the youth, one of the most important is the cultural factor.
He blames it on “the gradual erosion of moral and ethical values” from the society. He was worried that schools were concentrating on the academic aspect of education at the expense of moral education.
As a result, he concludes, “our time tested traditions, rules and respect for authority are being daily overturned”.
The Times agrees with the minister, but we respectfully beg to inform him that his suggestion has come a few years too late.
The truth about Ghana is that the time-tested traditions etc are not “being” overturned; they have been overturned, and there is very little anybody can do about it.
The syllabus for Moral Education is full of platitudes which even the teachers find boring to teach. Our point is that Moral Education is not approached with the practicality which it deserves.
It is the same reason why it is difficult to teach Cultural Studies in Ghanaian schools and expect the children to be culturally inclined, besides being able to dance traditional dances and recite poems about “Mother Africa”.
In the first place, the culture taught in schools is the culture of ancestors who lived more than 500 years ago. They are so irrelevant to modern life and living that the child pays attention only because Cultural and Moral Studies is an examinable subject.
No sooner had they gone home than foreign television and the internet take over, contradicting every word spoken by the teacher in class. The children are impressed by what they see on TV because the foreign values “make sense” to them.
They are also intelligent enough to conclude that the foreign values must be the preferred values because they are being espoused and practiced by the people from whom Ghana imports almost every single product found in their parents’ house.
The children do not know of any Ghanaian (African) heroes – there are none to compare with all the great names in science and technology and even the arts, taught by the teacher. On Ghanaian FM stations, the presenters know and project more foreign than local artistes.
What is worse, the local artistes themselves are trying very hard not to sound or act like Ghanaians: their accents, their mannerisms; their reactions etc are all imitations of foreign artistes. In the greater majority of local (or African Movies), the lifestyle is foreign: it is all about guns and drugs.
The child is impressed that the American or British child could tell his/her father not to be silly; the Ghanaian child, therefore, thinks that it is the norm and nobody should reprimand him for imitating same.
The Ministry of Culture has no answer. Go to the ministry and they will drum and dance in grass skirts till someone gets possessed. That, for them, is culture. The children, in rejecting this culture, have embraced the foreign.
Dear Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo, this is how our traditional and moral values got eroded.
