The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, says that responsibility for educating the youth in Ghana poses a multifaceted challenge and is not just the burden of the state and church.
The collective duty of ensuring that all Ghanaian youth are educated starts with the individual, the minister said. The family and society are the next essential groups which have responsibility for ensuring that young Ghanaians have the benefit of an education, he said.
He further argued that the Christian Church and the nation (the government) are equally enjoined to play critical roles in educating the youth in Ghana.
Oppong Nkrumah made this assertion when he addressed a church service in Tema Community 20 to mark the high point in the Education Week celebrations of the Most Holy Trinity Congregation of the Presbyterian Church.
“There about five people who bear the responsibility of providing quality education for God’s children. The first is self. I have the first responsibility to ensure that I am educated both formally and informally.
“You have the first responsibility to ensure that you are educated both formally and informally,” Oppong Nkrumah told the congregation.
Role of the family
The family unit, the Information Minister said, is the next entity that bears responsibility for the education of the youth.
“If a child is growing up and the family is not minded to urge that child on to acquire knowledge, you will find that as that child grows up, education, knowledge, skills are not matters of interest to that child,” Oppong Nkrumah said.
Social influence
Society, the Information Minister said, is one of the most important agents with a duty to ensure that the youth of the country are properly educated.
He recalled how colleagues in one organisation with which he was familiar had contributed to the education of the daughter of a woman who worked as the cleaner in their office. The woman always came to work with her daughter because she couldn’t afford to pay her school fees.
Thus, he said, society is pivotal to a country’s ability to achieve the goal of educating all its children.
“But for the fact that somebody in the society took an interest, that young girl may not have had the opportunity to move a step higher,” Oppong Nkrumah said.
The church and education
The minister acknowledged the huge role played by the Presbyterian Church in providing education.
He urged the Church to pursue its quest to ensure that all young people in the country gain an education.
Role of government and nation
The Information Minister touted governments as the “ultimate actor” in ensuring that the youth are educated. He said what may have started out as politics with regard to the Free Senior High School policy of the Akufo-Addo government has now become generally accepted by all players in Ghana, on both sides of the political divide.
“Regardless of the political party you talk about, now everybody is talking about education and how to support it and fund it. The nation, I believe, in the coming decades, will also be doing its part a bit more,” Oppong Nkrumah said.
Click on the link to listen to the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
Wilberforce Asare / Asaase Radio
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