Education Minister Yaw Adutwum has alluded to the necessity for a curriculum to raise critical thinkers who question the status quo in Ghanaian students.
He claims to have taught a number of courses at numerous Ghanaian schools, but no one has the courage to ask the students what he specifically taught them.
“I’ve visited schools upon schools and I speak to the students and when I finish speaking to them I will say do you have a question for me but no hands go up. A hand is yet to go up in all my encounters in Ghanaian classrooms,” he said.
He continued “we have tamed the children, we just want them to write down what we tell them. At the day of exams they should put down what we have told them and at the end of the day, we say you are the best student the country has ever known. That kind of education system will not transform Ghana. That kind of education system is not going to give us critical thinking people especially since we are in the 21st Century and Education 4.0, the 4th industrial revolution you can’t memorize your way out of poverty but you can critically think and innovate your way out of poverty.
Ghanaian schools and African schools should begin to think of what is called an assertive curriculum, a curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and challenge the status quo respectfully within the African context and not a curriculum that tells the African child to be quiet and doesn’t say anything when the adult is speaking,” he said.
