Introducing Virtual Learning Formal Education Classrooms (Platforms) on TV among Others in Ghana: Time Is Of The Essence

Planning, initiative and drive is direly needed in our today’s Ghanaian society. I believe no one disbelieves the fact that man’s lifespan on this planet earth would not be over 200 years.

When I recently unravelled this secret to a veteran Christian minister who is in addition a close family friend in a bid to sensitize him to make good and quick decisions taking the essence of time into consideration he concluded that it was as though I had pelted an insult at him. Simply because there has always been a norm that there is no need to rush in life.

But come to think of it. Even God is not going to prolong man’s age in this present world to over 200 years even if we claim (to speak nonsensically a bit) that God did not answer our prayers in due time. Or just because we failed in claiming His promises right early.

Posterity would not forgive us in this manner because there is a time for everything – a time we were born, a turn we turn 5, a time we turn 20,30,40 and a time we retire from industry, academia or business. A time for marrying and making children, a time for christening and nurturing babies, a time to enjoy the sweat and toil of our blood in good old age by receiving the reciprocated love from our grown up children.

More so there is a time to build up our societies, a time to enhance upon our educational structures and systems,a time to set up manufacturing industries, and a time to enjoy from our ceaseless labour and hard work.

It behoves upon us to challenge God, to convince Him and bargain with Him for more fairer deals (Isaiah 45:11) I am of the view that based on the afore – mentioned facts (especially the fact that man’s lifespan on earth is not over 200 years) God is capable of using anybody whether young or old to give a word of wisdom, display foresight and grant direction.

From the Book of Samuel in the Holy Bible, we learn that the young boy Samuel could hear the clear voice of the Lord. The prophet Samuel whilst young was aided by the priest Eli to discern the voice of God in the temple in Israel.

This means that sometimes our political leaders could make some decisions based upon suggestions from the electorate. They should not always see the electorate as a folk who cannot hear the “voice of God” The recent governments are seeking to grant the young ones in Ghana free access to basic and secondary education and this is a very good stride with the hope it would lead to fast pace of national development as far as formal education is concerned.

Besides, these recent governments too have since long sought to expand and build more infrastructural projects so more students could be enrolled to attain formal education. Many kudos to these governments.

None the less, it is a very serious mistake to think that the youths, older ones and the aged in our Ghanaian society -especially those amongst our rural folks–can never be granted unlimited access to formal education. Yet, it appears those in our rural communities who never had the privilege to acquire formal education have been completely omitted from this good dream despite the fact that our society had kept on developing and had advanced over the past years.

Thanks to modern technology, it is possible to get all and sundry within our present day Ghanaian society to freely acquire knowledge about the fundamentals and basics of reading, creative writing, modern business systems, technology, insurance, finance, investment as well as about good nutrition, personal hygiene and living a healthy lifestyle.

Virtual technology systems – computers, radio and television in this modern era could be feasibly used to turn our current Ghanaian societies into virtual learning classrooms. It is much to our disappointment that most of our television content and programmes do not teach or portray anything amounting to basic needed formal education that would bridge the gap between the highly educated and the uneducated in our society.

The programmes aired by our radio and television stations do not include lessons on basic phonetics,how to read the queen’s language, other languages local and foreign, how to write good essays, business plan, letters and proposals, computing and programming languages amongst others. Our television and radio programmes do not grant us the sort of education that is highly needed in our present day society: it does not champion the fight against illiteracy.

Most people still assert that you have to be present in a physical classroom and pay very huge learning fees if you want to acquire the best of basic level, secondary level as well as profession and tertiary level education.

However,the world is rapidly changing and the earlier we introduce highly advanced forms of modern virtual learning systems – using television as an effective tool – the better it would serve our nation.It would be a huge blessing for Ghanaians of all ages.

It is high time we brought an abrupt end to promoting and patronising in television programmes that do not add value in our fight to completely wipe out illiteracy from Ghana.We should also stop encouraging our radio and television networks from concentrating a bulk of their airtime in broadcasting materials that dwell on entertainment, leisure,recreational films and telenovela, sports,music to give examples. But we should urge our various media stakeholders to showcase very good content formal basic, secondary, professional and tertiary programmes.

Age matters these days:the earlier we achieve equal level of educational knowledge the better it would help in transforming our society. Procrastinating these suggestions would kill our real joys,our real dreams of building a more advanced Ghana.

By Ebenezer K N Baiden-Amissah

P O Box LG 1254,Legon, Accra.Ghana