Omanhen of Essikado Traditional Area, Nana Kobina Nketsiah V, has stressed the need for Ghana to review its education curriculum to make it more African-centered.

This, he indicated was crucial in the “second liberation struggle” of the African continent in the sense that knowledge could either imprison or liberate one from “mental slavery."

“The Western World cannot be the education standards for Africa. Education is about the mind. Our thinking systems must be authentically African”, he said .

The education sector, he said, was the most powerful and therefore all efforts must be made to own it.

Nana Nketsiah was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day Maiden Annual Educational Retreat /Workshop organized by the Western Regional Directorate of Ghana Education Service (GES) in Takoradi on Wednesday.

The event which was on the theme, “Re-Imagining Education: The Western Story” brought together education stakeholders including directors of education and heads of senior high schools in the region.

According to the Omanhen, the only solution to win the fight against Neo-colonialism was for African countries to provide an authentic African education that would emancipate the thoughts of the African and to free their minds of Neo-colonialism.

He said African countries ought to provide a solid foundation for the conscientisation of the younger generation on the realities and worldview of the African.

He further underscored the need for the country to be conscious of the knowledge being imparted to the younger generation. Nana Nketsiah described teachers as warriors and front liners in what he called the “second liberation struggle” of the African continent.

According to him, Ghana and for that matter, Africa was going through a second phase of the liberation for independence which required for its educational sector to provide an education centered on an Africa worldview.

For him, teachers should be able to inspire, motivate and ginger the young ones to be patriotic, and loyal to their nation.

He asked Ghanaian teachers to commit to translating knowledge of consciousness to the Ghanaian child, using inspirational stories of great Pan-Africanist to motivate the young ones and not that of so-called Western greats.

Nana Nketsiah commended the efforts of the Western Regional Directorate for their innovation and resolution to put education on the cutting-edge in the Region and further charged them to “let the Western Regional standard take over the country.”

The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah also commended the Regional Education Directorate, said such engagements were important to the growth and development of education in the Region.

He reiterated that Modern education must accredit basic skills such as reading, writing as well as skills in problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, that young people need for work, to start a business, and to engage productively in their communities.

He said the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic had provided an impetus for the country to develop comprehensive plans for the transformation of its education system.

He urged the education stakeholders to be committed to championing the provision of quality education and training to the teeming youth of the country.

“The successes or failures of your institutions depend largely on your leadership and management style. Never say it is enough in the pursuit of your professional and academic career endeavours. Always strive for the best in everything you do. What others have achieved in the other worlds, you can also do and do better”, he said.

Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai, Regional Director of Education gave an overview of the status of education in the Region and said the Directorate introduced strategies to encourage reading among directors, teachers, and pupils.

This, she said, was annually yielding positive outcomes among the pupils. She mentioned inadequate vehicles for monitoring and supervision and educational infrastructure as some of the major challenges facing the directorate and appealed to stakeholders and other corporate organizations to come to their aid.

Mrs. Okai expressed grave concern about what she described as “presentism” on the part of headteachers and some teachers where they would be present in the school but did not supervise the work of teachers and students.

She admonished headteachers to effectively play their supervisory roles and ensure that instructional hours were not misused or wasted by teachers for maximum results.