No Ghanaian student has ever asked me a question in class – Education Minister laments ‘timid’ system

Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has lamented the state of affairs in the current education system where students are reluctant to ask questions of their teachers.

The Minister, who doubles and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, believes that reluctance must be done away with if fully rounded children relevant to society are to be nurtured.

He disclosed in an address that in all the times that he has visited schools back home and decided to teach, none of his students had ever asked a question after he had taught and asked if they had any questions.

“I go to schools upon schools and I speak with the students and when I finish speaking with them, I say who has a question for me? No hands goes up. A hand is yet to go up in all my encounters in Ghanaian classrooms.

“We have tamed the children, we just want them to write down what we tell them, at the day of the exams we say you are the best student the country has ever known.

“That kind of education system cannot transform Ghana, that kind of education system is not going to get us critical thinking individual especially as we are in the 21st Century, Education 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution,” he stressed.

He asserted that it is only through critical minded students that poverty can be fought and defeated, advocating further that Ghanaian and African school should gravitate towards what he called, an “assertive curriculum.”

“A curriculum that empowers the African child to ask questions and to challenge the status quo. Respectfully within the African context, but not a curriculum that tells the African to be quiet and not say anything when the adult is speaking,” he added.

He was speaking on Tuesday, September 20, at the United Nations Educational Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the event was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“Speaking on behalf of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Launch dubbed “Rewiring education for people and planet Report,” I pointed out the need for a new way of working that reimagines education in a win-win partnership with the entire 2030 Agenda,” he posted on his social media handles.