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Renowned Ghanaian diplomat and statesman, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has advocated a rethink of the country’s education structure to properly align its systems with national developmental aspirations.
"Ghana stands at a crossroads. One path leads us to continue with incremental adjustments, a new test here, a new building there, while there is a fundamental mismatch between the education system and our developmental aspirations," he stated.
He said the other path of constantly rethinking the path to the empowerment of the human mind in all its creativity, critical capacity and ethical depth and the centre of national development should be pursued to accelerate growth and development.
"We have built classrooms; now we must build capabilities. We have increased enrolment; now we must increase enlightenment," he said, adding that the future will not reward countries that just educate but countries that empower minds.
Dr Chambas, also an academic and lawyer, was speaking at the second University of Education, Winneba (UEW) public lecture series at Winneba last Friday.
It was on the theme: "Empowering minds: Rethinking education for sustainable development.”
The renowned diplomat said while access and gender parity had improved with foundational reforms in place, persistent challenges of uneven quality, teacher remuneration, regional disparities and the need to balance STEM with humanities, which demanded sustained investments, remained.
He said Ghana and Africa at large could not silence guns and achieve peace and the Sustainable Development Goals without aligning educational goals towards development, saying that would ultimately help realise a peaceful, secure and prosperous Africa that left no one behind.
He said that required a national movement, a multifaceted, multi-stakeholder endeavour with a committed direction led by the Ministry of Education.
He said African Education Watch reported that despite increases in the education budget, Ghana's average budget on education spending from 2017 to 2026 stood at 3.7 per cent of GDP, when generally the target was five per cent.
He said the sectoral share of total government expenditure also averaged 16.6 per cent, with the lower range of UNESCO's recommended minimum of 15 to 20 per cent.
He said the 2026 education allocation stood at 16.2 per cent of government spending and 3.1 per cent of GDP.
Dr Chambas said while these figures met the minimum benchmark, they were insufficient to deliver the transformation needed.
He stressed that developed countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and India had prioritised and made significant investments in technical and vocational education and teacher development.
He said these countries had achieved educational excellence, combined policy continuity, investment in teacher quality, balanced curricula and financing mechanisms that addressed inequalities and innovation ecosystems connecting education and economic opportunities.
"If Ghana rethinks education for sustainable development, the goal should not be to replicate other single models anywhere but to forge a uniquely Ghanaian practice that builds an educational system capable of combining these innovations with local realities and traditional education systems," he said.
Dr Chambas further stated that the nation's education system must cultivate citizenship and ethics.
"Our schools must become laboratories of integrity, innovation and civic responsibility. We must raise learners who understand that sustainability is not theory but practical, leadership is not a position, it's a responsibility," he stated.
"We must foster a sense of sankofa not just as a symbol but as a principle of learning from the past to build a better future.
He said learners must understand that their actions and inaction impacted the next generation and must consciously work towards sustainability.
He said the school system must teach integrity not just as a topic in religious and moral education but as a lived practice.
Dr Chambas called for more investment and to ensure teachers were adequately motivated, respected and resourced, saying the future of the country hinged on teachers.
The Chief Executive Officer of Telecel Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, said learning must bridge the gap between industry and the classroom to make the needed impact.
For his part, the Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Prof. Stephen Jobson Mitchual, said the university was committed to working towards education that was forward-looking and inclusive, targeted at training job creators to help address the unemployment challenge in the country.
The Special Advisor to the Minister of Education, Prof. George Oduro, said the ministry would work on building a strong foundational structure at the basic level for the educational system to support the nation's transformational agenda.
