Dear Ghana, 5000 miles away, the echoes of the ongoing and heated debate about the plan of the government to implement free senior high school education reached my ears.
One would think that it is a great idea and would be welcomed by all. Besides, free education is written into the constitution. However, over the years, Ghanaians have grown rather cautious over the use of the word “free” and so a number of them are asking a rather poignant question:
“Can we afford it?”, and that question is resounding across the country.
Plans to dip into the country’s Heritage Fund, one of two funds created for posterity and funded with oil revenue, have been scrapped. Some analysts think it is going to be funded by a combination of government spending cuts and higher taxes. The only problem with the latter is that one of the present administration’s campaign promises was not to raise or institute new taxes. (Another was to institute free senior high school education).
Other analysts think the plan should be scrapped for now since higher taxes will not be good for the economy.
I say, find a way. Please find a way. If it means revamping the whole educational system, please find a way.
Many years ago, when I lived in Berlin, I went out bike-riding in the woods outside the city with a friend. Sometime in the late afternoon, we got hungry and decided to take a detour through some trees to get to a restaurant.
About 100 m into the trees, something caught our eyes. A little ahead we both stopped and looked back. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Behind a bush was a couple going hard at it in the late afternoon chill. I was about to burst out laughing when my friend put her finger over my lips, shutting me up. They were totally oblivious to our presence a few feet away and the cold. We got back on a bikes and rode away. When I was sure we were out of earshot, I stopped, got off my bike and burst out laughing. My friend looked at me quizzically and then drawing on a popular saying, she spun it into these words that I have never forgotten:
“Wo ein Wille ist, da ist immer ein Busch”.
Translated, it goes:
“Where there is a will, there is always a bush.”
So to my dear nation of Ghana, I say,
“If the will is there to give every child in Ghana the gift of education, you will find a bush.”
You will find that bush behind which you can achieve your aim, damn the cold, damn any nosy bike riders, damn whatever V8s those parliamentarians need, damn expensive celebrations, damn corrupt deals. Look at those ledgers and get creative. Look at the system – tweak it. Make it a national effort not a partisan push.
Yet no matter what you do, don’t give up on the idea of free education, then education is truly the great equalizer. I can vouch for that. Like the 19th century US congressman from Massachusetts and educational reformer, Horace Man, once said:
“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”
Imagine 20-25 years down the line. Imagine that generation of kids looking up and asking:
“So what did you all do with all that money you borrowed and the revenue you got from oil, gold and cocoa?”
Imagine the answer being:
“See all those doctors, scientists, engineers, authors, artists, coders, executives, architects, geneticists, teachers, accountants, lawyers? That is what we used it for”.
Would that be so bad?
Remember, where there is a will, there is always a bush. Find it and get busy!