We sleep-walked into the double track system

Unless refugees are invading Ghana (which is not the case), the main source of our population increase is through child birth—one baby at a time throughout the hamlets, corners, villages, towns and cities of our country. Some women cross streams to deliver babies; some manage things at home with traditional birth attendants; and others end up at health centres, clinics and hospitals. 

Mothers scream to deliver babies. Some go through caesarean sections; whilst some mothers and their babies die in the birthing process. As babies enter this life from the cosy environment of the womb, they scream out of shock and discomfort. After babies are born, society recognizes their arrival with full-blown and grand out-dooring ceremonies and congratulatory messages to the parents. 

Childbirth is dramatic. It is the drama that increases our population. It is a big drama we cannot afford to ignore—but we do. It is because we have continued to ignore the big drama of pain and joy of child birth and the associated population growth that this year, we suddenly have to introduce a double-track system for senior high school. We actually sleep-walked our way into the double track SHS! It is the irresponsiveness to our population growth that has brought us here.

We have been this way for a very long time. We have seen Ghana’s children increase in numbers on our road sides as hawkers, with desperation etched in their faces. A counting exercise I conducted of young people loitering and hawking along three principal streets of Accra over a two-year period pointed to a 66% annual increase These are young people we know are not going anywhere any time soon on the path of progression.

OUR RAPID POPULATION GROWTH 

The population pattern of Ghana gives a clear picture of rapid growth. From a baseline population of 6.7 million inhabitants in the freshly-minted nation state in 1961, we continued to get very busy at the baby-making factory. We increased to 8.7 million in 1970, 12.3 million in 1984, and 19.9 million in 2000. In the 2010 Housing and Population Census, we were 24.5 million. A Ghanaian Timesnews story in March this year cited the Statistical Service as estimating Ghana’s current population at 29.6 million. So already, this decade alone, we have added an estimated five million human beings (and still counting). 

The Fourth Republic has produced its own children—between 10 to 15 million. If we did not plan for the pre-1992 children, for a minimum, we should have planned for the children of the Fourth Republic!

So now, our number has grown by 23 million people since independence! Ghana’s population is growing at an estimated 2.5 percent annually; with the youth comprising of 38.8%. This is the almost 40% of the population we have not been planning for. If we were planning for them, the youth would have been an asset towards our national development. But now, they weigh heavily on our conscience. 

CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS IN EDUCATION

If we were to put a mirror before Ghana, we will acknowledge that we have collectively and woefully failed the children we have been busy giving birth to. We welcome them into this world and leave them to lose their innocence on the streets (unless they are the children of privileged people).

On education rights, the 1992 Constitution asserts that: “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities.” But clearly, this is not the case. It is the children of the privileged and the lucky who have access to educational opportunities and facilities. The children of the ‘other’ are left on their own. 

The Constitution also says: “Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.” Clearly, this is not the case.

The Directive Principle of state Policy also says: “The State shall, subject to the availability of resources, provide— (a) equal and balanced access to secondary and other appropriate pre-university education, equal access to university or equivalent education, with emphasis on science and technology.” If has been 61 years since the coming into effect of the 1992 Constitution. Access to secondary and other pre-university education has dodged many. The quality matter is another can of worms; it is ugly. 

CRISIS MANGEMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

As a country, we have been doing and not doing certain things, which have predictive consequences. When you do not solve problems when they come in drips, they grow in size and become major crises. So, we have over the years ended up with an over-flow of young people who have no chance of entering the closed spaces of secondary schools. We have therefore created an excess generation for which we have no use and no plans.

The double track system is therefore an attempt to crisis manage this sticky situation. It is sad that we have waited so irresponsibly for so long until this stage that has made it absolutely necessary to take Ghana’s children through a crisis management phase in providing secondary education.

The introduction of the double track system, by which the same facilities are used by two groups of pupils—back-to-back, is only a default position at crisis management. It is folly to forever stay in a crisis management mode in any aspect of life. Crises are avoidable if one stays on the alert of issues; but we were not! 

Crisis should be managed for just a season. When the crisis becomes the permanent state of affairs, it is beyond dysfunctional. If we keep the double track system for more than 3 years, it will imply extending the crazy state of sleep-walk. 

Formerly known as ‘somnambulism’, sleep-walking is an unconscious state of being—between sleep and wakefulness, in which people get up from sleep (without actually waking up) and walk about and engage in various activities but meanwhile, remain asleep. In the morning, the sleep walker would have no recollection of waking up to walk! Clearly, this is dangerous. The person can get hurt. It is said that sleep walking is a behaviour disorder, which is associated with sleep deprivation. We cannot manage a country in such a disorderly dysfunctional sleep-walking state for long.

There are several challenges with the crisis management of using the double track system. But we have to go around the problems and look at the benefits. The number one advantage I see is that some thousands of children who would not have gone to secondary school despite the free education intervention, have been mopped out of the unplanned and ruthless spaces that provide no guidance and future to young people.  

dorisdartey@gmail.com