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Opinions of Friday, 28 October 2022

Columnist: McDonalds Nana Yaw Asare

The conservative training must stop

McDonalds Nana Yaw Asare, author McDonalds Nana Yaw Asare, author

Older people in Ghana and Africa, in general, will quickly compare the western child’s talents to African child making us look stupid but when we remind them of the role western parents play to see their kids succeed and how they are respected and given the freedom to learn, then they start telling you about how our culture tells us to respect the older person even when it’s obvious they are acting silly! Such hypocrisy irks me. Some employers will tell us how half-baked African graduates are but will never sponsor people to go out there to learn. It’s only in Ghana and Africa in general that a young adult about 23 old is asked to have 5 years of experience in a field before being employed. How will they get the experience if all our leaders think of is how quickly they make a profit? I’m convinced that the entrepreneurial lectures we receive regularly are all tailored ideas of others copied to convince us. Most people in Africa will not tell you the Real Truth behind the success of their business or how they really made money, reasons are that if you put 2-3 together, the kind of affluence they have would be far off really so they conceal the truth and urge us to work like horses. If indeed the ideas they churn out are really true, why don’t they give us startups? Or soft loans? They won’t because they themselves don’t trust the process. Others also don’t just want to see young African or Ghanaian rich. They think as young as we are we cannot handle such huge money but guess what they travel abroad and sit with younger western people who cheat them into signing agreements that put countries in Africa in huge debt regularly. Is it just a weak mindset or witchcraft? All this nonsense must stop otherwise the success we seek to achieve in years to come will elude us in a flash! This must be tackled from the root. Allow students to write their minds in the classrooms not strictly telling them to write what they have been taught. Even in our universities, we have such things going on where lecturers tell students to write in exams exactly what they have been taught but students who write their minds are rather discouraged. It’s only archaic mindsets over the years being passed on from time to time with no respect to change of era. Another solution will also be teaching our younger ones in our native languages though we can study English as a subject but should not be used to teach all subjects. It will be a perfect point to start from as one Professor from Nigeria intimated. Germany, China, and Russia all learn English as a subject but not as a medium of teaching all subjects... Please African leaders start doing the needful. We are tired of being tagged as the future but with no better plans for our future. Only debts and bad agreements await us. I’m done. Inspired by the fountain in Akuafo Hall.