Education is fundamental for human development, poverty reduction – Prof Adiku

Professor Samuel Adiku, Director of Academic Quality Assurance of the University of Ghana (UG) on Friday said education is universally recognized as one of the most fundamental building blocks for human development and poverty reduction.

He noted that the rate of learning however depends on the management of education, which is in three categories, Informal (oral tradition), On-the-job (nurture) and Formal (Schooling).

Prof Adiku was speaking at a Public Lecture organized by the Old Students Union of Mawuli Senior High School in the Volta Region, on the topic “Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Education: Prospects for the Future”, in Accra.

He said informal education has remained largely in the socio-cultural domain where knowledge was handed down in language, cultural norms, fables, myths, tales, songs, dirges and cultural performances.

Prof Adiku, who is also a Professor of Soil Science, said informal education was hardly documented and suffers from multiple interpretation and erosion of content and often ridden with conflicts as different people have different versions, which was difficult to control.

He said formal education involves organized teaching, training and research and documentation and delivery of experiences that have formative effect, such as pedagogy, which is the full development of the human being to skills acquisition, Development of strategies of instruction and the setting up of environment and situation to achieve learning goals.

Prof Adiku said education was Introduced in Ghana in the 16th Century by two main groups, Merchants and Christian Churches.

He said the Merchants aimed at training mulato children for employment as administrative assistants or soldiers whilst the Christian Missionaries was aiming to create an independent native church with a staff of well-educated local assistants, which was finance by Charity Groups Abroad.

Prof Adiku said the first signs of a PPP in education were in 1882, where Government set up a Unified Education System for the Country and a General Board of Education, to support Government effort to guide educational development, Certification of teachers, Award of grants to schools and a Legal framework.

Dr Ruby Avotri, President of OMSU said the union has over the years supported the development of its Alma Mater, adding that, the National Executive Council, as part of its activities, decided to organize the lecture.

She said the PPP has becomes a common and well used terminology in Ghana today, and that “As stakeholders in education, we believe the PPP can be of great use not only to our Alma Mater, but Ghana’s educational system as a whole.”

Mr Kofi Attor, Chairman of the occasion encourages stakeholders to participate fully in the promotion of the PPP in education.

Source: GNA