It seems like the evidence indicting the quality of education in Ghana keeps mounting up. The shock over the abysmal performances in the WASSCE has yet to subside before a new survey has surfaced damning early basic education.
The beginnings of a person’s education is crucial because that is the stage the foundation for later education is built, and we all know a shaky foundation often leads to a faulty building.
There is a reason Mathematics has been a drawback for most WASSCE candidates for a while now, and it’s because the basics of the subject are often butchered, leaving the student forever handicapped in comprehending the more complex aspects of Maths that crop up from the Senior High School level upwards.
It seems like English is getting that treatment now, as a recent survey has revealed that 98% of students in Primary Two cannot read, and/or understand the English language.
The average age of a pupil in Class two is seven or eight years, whilst the main medium of teaching from Primary One onwards is the English Language. Therefore we have teachers regularly teaching practically an entire class who can barely understand a word they’re saying.