Africans urged to reject education that alienates them

Cape Coast (Central Region), 15 March '99 -Professor K. N. Awoonor, Presidential Aide, has called on Africans to reject the type of education that alienates and turns them away from their own historical and social origins. Prof. Awoonor was speaking on "The Uniqueness of the African Culture in the Development of the Child in the 21st Century" at the speech and prize giving day of the Aggrey Memorial A. M. E. Zion Secondary School at Cape Coast, on Saturday. He said the present education, which seeks to europeanise the African and direct him towards assuming some mythical universalistic role, must be rejected.

"The new African, which the founding fathers of African freedom dreamt of, is the African who is anchored in the positive values of his ancestors. "The African whose morality derives from the creative and positive social energies that stress what is for the communal good.

"The African, who is not a poor copy of anyone else, but a well-balanced and proudly motivated being, whose contribution to human history has never been in doubt and who is a self-assured member of the human family, insisting upon and defending his place around the table". Prof Awoonor said to this end, African history, languages, ethics and morality must feature prominently in syllabus for schools. "We must impart to our youth through education the fundamental sense of racial pride, self-assuredness, and the consciousness that we have a right to make our errors, the right to learn from others, the right to dignified treatment. "We are not people who should be encumbered with tutelage". He said the foundation of African Culture lies in its systematic and well-designed child bearing and upbringing, adding that the child is the heart of an African family. Prof Awoonor observed that the African girl receives a special attention on the basis of the fact that she is a future mother, a sustainer and nourisher of the family, the main vessel of the group's ritual knowledge and its survival system. He dismissed the belief of some people that culture was only based on dancing, carrying chiefs in palanquins, and puberty, rites, saying that African culture deals with more important issues than these. In the African culture it takes the entire community to bring up a child, adding that every adult looks after the welfare, upbringing and the development of the child. All adults, whether members of the family or not, form part of a support group for the child. He expressed regret that western education has injected in the present day African, the sense of individualism, which is seriously loosening the strong bonds between African families. To restore these values, Prof Awoonor said, "our schools and colleges must become community institutions, designed and promoted in a manner that guarantees that whoever leaves their doors must be equipped with the spirit to serve the community". The headmaster, Mr Kwesi Appiah-Dankwa said all 554 candidates presented for the 1997 Senior Secondary School Certificate qualified to write the University Entrance Examination. . Mr Appiah-Dankwa said there are 1,471 girls and 999 boys on enrolment, thus over-stretching facilities at the girls' section. He asked for the construction of more dormitories, classrooms and a new library and the provision of computers and typewriters. Only 38 of the 72 teachers are housed on the school compound, a situation, which has made it difficult to recruit the full complement of 104 teachers and appealed to the Ministry of Education to expedite action on three blocks of flats for teachers. The School Prefect, Mr Henry Bart-Addison, said the introduction of a set of 45 rules with sanctions has led to an improvement in discipline among the students, which has made a positive impact on their academic performance. He appealed for the construction of a study shed for girls to enable them use the evenings profitably and the expansion of the school library which, he said can accommodate only 72 students at a time