Educationist, Anis Haffar, says he is not surprised at all that Ghana secured the unenviable last position on the latest OECD global rankings on Mathematics and Science education.
Ghana was ranked 76th out of the 76 countries surveyed with Singapore and Hong Kong, taking the pride places of Numbers one and two respectively.
Other countries in the lowest ranks together with Ghana are Oman, Morocco, Honduras, South Africa which were ranked 72, 73, 74 and 75 respectively.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which compiled the list, says the comparisons - based on test scores in 76 countries - show the link between education and economic growth.
"This is the first time we have a truly global scale of the quality of education," said the OECD's education director, Andreas Schleicher.
"The idea is to give more countries, rich and poor, access to comparing themselves against the world's education leaders, to discover their relative strengths and weaknesses, and to see what the long-term economic gains from improved quality in schooling could be for them," he said.
Commenting on the rankings and Ghana’s score on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday, the education campaigner said key infrastructure and policy direction that should enhance quality education in Ghana are lacking.
“If you look at the top nations – Finland, Singapore, Switzerland and the rest of them – these guys are serious about education. If you look at Finland, for example, they have their best minds in the teaching field - it is more difficult to get into the school of education in Finland than it is to get into medical school,” he said.
Mr. Haffar blamed the moribund educational system in Ghana on the quality of training received by teachers.
He said the lack of application of ICT and low inspiration of teachers conspire to put Ghana in its current situation.
At the Basic Education Certificate Examination level, Anis Haffar said scores of pupils from the Upper East and West, Northern, Volta and Central regions are so low, a situation he said is worrying.
“I’ve taught outside the country and I can tell to the quality of teaching in Ghana; even the environment in which learning takes place; I mean look at our schools here, we don’t even have toilets; we don’t have water t flush toilets; we don’t even have facilities for girls,” he lamented.
These problems negatively affect the cognitive abilities of pupils.
He expressed regret that “In this country, we don’t seem to take education seriously…so I am not surprised by these research findings at all.”
See the rest of the countries and their ranks below:
1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. South Korea
4. Japan (joint)
4. Taiwan (joint)
6. Finland
7. Estonia
8. Switzerland
9. Netherlands
10. Canada
11. Poland
12. Vietnam
13. Germany
14. Australia
15. Ireland
16. Belgium
17. New Zealand
18. Slovenia
19. Austria
20. United Kingdom
21. Czech Republic
22. Denmark
23. France
24. Latvia
25. Norway
26. Luxembourg
27. Spain
28. Italy (joint)
28. United States (joint)
30. Portugal
31. Lithuania
32. Hungary
33. Iceland
34. Russia
35. Sweden
36. Croatia
37. Slovak Republic
38. Ukraine
39. Israel
40. Greece
41. Turkey
42. Serbia
43. Bulgaria
44. Romania
45. UAE
46. Cyprus
47. Thailand
48. Chile
49. Kazakhstan
50. Armenia
51. Iran
52. Malaysia
53. Costa Rica
54. Mexico
55. Uruguay
56. Montenegro
57. Bahrain
58. Lebanon
59. Georgia
60. Brazil
61. Jordan
62. Argentina
63. Albania
64. Tunisia
65. Macedonia
66. Saudi Arabia
67. Colombia
68. Qatar
69. Indonesia
70. Botswana
71. Peru
72. Oman
73. Morocco
74. Honduras
75. South Africa
76. Ghana
Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Malik Abass Daabu
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