Educating wards abroad - new code of ethics for public officers

Education is an inalienable right of every child, and parents are obligated to give their children or wards the best of it as long as their pockets can afford it.

And the Chronicle concedes that there are a lot of Ghanaians out there who can afford quality education at any level under the sun, whether at any institution here in Ghana or elsewhere, especially in countries in Europe or the Americas.

Unfortunately, for the nation, a trend is developing where public officials, whilst they overlook the neglect going on at our institutions of higher learning, go out of their way to send their kids abroad to be educated in prestigious institutions at fantastic costs.

Much space and ink has been expended on criticizing, even condemning former President Jerry John Rawlings and his cronies, among other things, for sending their kids abroad to receive quality education.

Of course, no one can legislate against anybody or group of people sending their kids abroad to receive the best western education can offer. And no-one who has made his money legitimately must be deprived in any way of the good things of life, including education abroad for his children.

Even for those who hold political or public office it would be difficult to push for any sound reason why they must not send their kids abroad to further their education.

If most Ghanaians are peeved and angry at this development, it is because our public officials, politicians and policy makers who should be ensuring that our educational system works, are competing with one another in this selfish, unpatriotic and greedy act.

It is an established fact that Ghana's universities used to be among the best in Africa and the Third World. Indeed, so revered was our educational system that a couple of decades ago, secondary school leavers could enter European universities without even completing their sixth form programme.

Today, the whole system is rotten and collapsed and while we all rant and rave about the mess, virtually little is being done to correct the lapses.

It is in this vein that the Chronicle supports the call by the Principal of the Sunyani Polytechnic, Dr. Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, that politicians and public office holders should be made to stop educating their kids abroad.

The call, the Chronicle believes, will in principle help to restore appreciable confidence in our educational system and task the brains of our policy makers and implementers towards attaining the heights our educational system were known for in the years gone by, particularly up to the sixties and early seventies.

To make our educational system work, the paper would call on President Kufuor to include in his Code of Ethics a commitment by his lieutenants to demonstrate, through strategic planning and implementation, that our universities could be comparable to others in other parts of the enlightened world. The mark of a good leader is that he learns to sit where the people sits.

It is only then that one could be sufficiently equipped psychologically, mentally and spiritually to provide the kind of leadership that releases the talents and potentials of those under him. Let our leaders show the way, and we will follow.