Open Letter to the Minister of Education

Having considered you to be a very busy man who hardly visits campuses of schools to see for yourself at first hand the pains students go through before completing school, I have decided to bring to your attention in the simplest words possible the horrors of being a student in Ghana. And I believe it will be in the interest of your ministry and the government to fulfill the promises you made to Ghanaian students.
It is against this backdrop that I wish to preview my letter with this simple drama that summarizes the painful experience of parents whose wards receive admission into schools in Ghana.
The wailings of the man whose ward had gained admission into one of the universities in the country attracted the attention of all who had gone to the bus stop to board a vehicle that cold morning. The loudness of this man’s cry was enough to catch the attention of curious observers who thought themselves the most inquisitive of all men.
What could make a man old enough to be my father’s elder brother groan this early morning when everybody had virtually woken up was the question that engraved my innocent mind as I sought to brainstorm to find a fitting excuse to satisfy my curiosity. However, no sooner had I finished with the brainstorming activity than one tall man whispered to me that it was all because his son had gained admission into a university in Ghana.
This, I considered to be good news that did not merit wailings until an amount huge enough to pay my mother’s rent for ten years was named as the amount required of him. To this dejected man, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the duration of the semester; at least he felt the four months duration was too short for him to raise such an amount to pay the university.
The consolation from pedestrians that plied the route that early morning was enough to make me sad the whole day as I sat down to reflect on the hardships students go through in our various universities. It was not until then that I discovered that the high level of deprivation on our campuses have led Ghanaians to describe admission letters from these schools as death warrants.
And students who respond to this call are seen by society to be brave men and who have decided to travel through hell to make life better for them and their families. So instead of admission letters becoming sites for joy, they have slowly been converted into death warrants.
In fact it was after these series of discoveries that I really appreciated the massive demonstration that took place on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon, some few months ago. I then concluded that the students of the Commonwealth Hall of the university were right when they took to the streets.
To everyone who is wondering why I am justifying the deeds of these students who have been described as truants and occults, I will encourage such fellow to visit the campus of the premier university or any other tertiary institution in this country. And whatever observation he/she makes, he/she should keep to himself/herself.
Not only are students and parents suffering from inflated amounts charged as tuition fees, they also have to walk for long hours before being attended to by administrators at the various departments of the university. There are even cases when parents have to beg these administrators who may be young enough to be their children before being attended to.
To parents of first year students who desire to see to the settlement of their children before departing for their homes, it is common for them to be the new security men and women for the luggage of their wards. The burning sun of the afternoon then becomes their friend when it burns their skins without mercy.
As if the payment of huge amount into the university’s accounts is not enough, parents who come without at least a thousand Ghana cedis will have to leave and return again to complete the admission procedure. This is because, at every stage of admission, something may be required of these poor parents who are at this time considered to be the worse of sinners.
They are described as such because they have committed the most sacrilegious sin of trying to educate their children in the country of their birth. Perhaps, this is considered to be the most offensive of all sins since university education they say, is not for the poor.
Welcome to the University of Ghana, the nation’s premier university, which has offered education to majority of the policy makers that this country has had since independence. Indeed, this university can boast of living to fulfill its mission in the about sixty two years of its existence.
And I say Ayekoo to the University of Ghana for making Ghana proud and proving that the J.B. Danquahs and K.A. Busiahs were right when they contended that the Gold Coast is capable of hosting its own university. And it is my fervent belief that it is able to go a long way to become one of the best in the world.
This is the palace of exploitation where a place to lay one’s head is even cherished than the food one will eat; for even the great American philosopher, Abraham Maslow, classifies shelter as one of the basic need for the survival of man.
Accommodation in Legon is one of the many ‘Achilles heels’ which if not addressed, can lead to the fall of the much cherished heritage of most learned men in this country. Inadequate accommodation facility has made many students become night watchmen night watchwomen.
As a matter of fact, accommodation problem has deterred many from responding to the sacred call of the university. And statistics has shown that most of these students are from outside Accra.
Most students who cannot afford the four hundred Ghana cedis (GH¢400) charged per semester at the ultra modern hostel complex on the campus of Legon had had to ‘perch’ and in the extreme case sleep in the open. And I wonder, why a university which claims to offer a better avenue for the acquisition of knowledge will look on as students suffer.
And students who are lucky to find themselves in the traditional halls which are slowly being converted into hostel facilities do not enjoy any better service from the university. The least talked about sanitation the better as water hardly runs through their taps.
The Commonwealth Hall, which was once the last hope of especially male students suffering from the accommodation canker, has now been unmercifully taken from poor students. The charges of this hostel is just but one of the lowest amongst the many hostels that surround the university.
The case study of the University of Ghana is enough to explain the poor performance of students in public universities as the problems that persist here pertain in all other universities in the country. Hence, confirming the saying that, university education is not for the poor.
It is therefore reasonable to conclude that if these problems persist, then the country should never dream of achieving a substantial reduction in the poverty level. And if so, then goal one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be nothing but a fiasco as education is rather used to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

source: TIME with THE GOVERNOR