Education Reform in Ghana?

**Please, before reading, keep in mind that I am a 22-year old student who knows absolutely nothing about anything! Please take everything I say with a grain of salt- I've never studied education theory; I have never taught classes. All I can share are my own experiences as a student.**

**Also, it's Rivky. What up, guys? We're back from Israel. It was great. More on that later. Maybe.**

I think most people who know me know that I'm not the most academically inclined person. By that I mean that I really don't excel at school in the classic way. I hate studying, and generally only do it when pushed. I didn't do so well in high school. (People never believe me, but I graduated about 105th in my class of 160, so ha!) The truth is probably that I was just lazy- I didn't feel like studying, so I didn't. And it never felt so important- my parents never stressed grades as much as other parents (for good and for bad), so I never really cared or worried about it. But another reason I didn't study, besides for my laziness, is because I hashkafically have issues with most exams, especially the ones that involve rote memorization and regurgitating information that the teacher has fed the students. I always felt like I was wasting my time, especially because of my horrible memory. Even when I did memorize the information, I forgot it within a day or two. (When I thought the memorization was useful, like when I learned what happened in each perek (1) of Torah in Harova, I memorized it and kept refreshing myself, which helped with retention. But generally, the information felt useless, and I never did the work.) When I was given a vocabulary list for Talmud tests in high school, I barely actually did it, because I honestly thought it was dumb, because I would just forget it the next day when I had to learn it like this.

Of course, in retrospect, having memorized the words would have been great for my later Talmud study. But if I were the educator, I think I would have had my students know the vocabulary by the context. I often think about my 8th grade Talmud class, taught by Rabbi E. (what was his full name??). Once or twice, instead of written exams, we had to learn a couple of dafim (3) of Talmud, and then we were asked to teach the class an amud (2) of the Talmud- I don't understand why that isn't the way students are always taught Talmud, learning by teaching.

Basically, I think memorization as an education tool is dumb. I don't think it's particularly effective in giving students the basics of learning, especially if their memory retention is horrible (exhibit A: me), and the students don't exhibit any creativity and understanding of the coursework. Of course, exams can sometimes be good- I remember an interesting essay question on an exam given by Rabbi Blau in 12th grade Ketuvim, where we had to compare the themes and specific examples from Kohelet to the song "Richard Corey" from Simon and Garfunkel. Now that's a question! Encouraging creative thing, shows the student's mastery of the material, and keeps the student's mind engaged. Chinuch (4) at its best, Rabbi Blau!

I think I've learned best when I've written papers. Critical thinking and analysis is, in my humble opinion.

Okay, now to the point. We've established that I dislike memorization and spitback exams. The Ghana education system, from elementary school to university, focuses on these tools! I haven't been in a lower school here, but Yamit teaches middle school children, and she says that the teacher writes on the board, the students scribble furiously, copying down every word, and then for the exams, the students are expected to remember every bit of information. From what I've seen, it doesn't get better. In Hopkins, I barely take exams; most of my coursework is writing papers. (And the exams I take are often in-class essays.) But when I'm in class, students are copying down every word the professor says. There are no intermittent exams throughout the semester, there one only one final exam, upon which the entire grade is based. To prepare for the final exams, student memorize their notes from class and their readings. A friend of mine who was in Ghana last semester told me that there are always exam questions that are basically, "According to author x, what is the definition of term y?" As if that sort of question helps the student in any way!! I'm taking a political science class right now. We have readings, and the class sessions are usually students just asking the professor questions about the readings. The final exam will be spitback, testing students' knowledge of the readings. There is no critical thinking involved whatsoever! If I were writing the exam, I would only do essay questions! For example, in the readings, the professor could provide the students with different theories about the political and economic interactions between west Africa and China, and about the IMF, World Bank, etc., both in the readings and in class, and then ask the students to talk about that, and which is more effective, and why, etc. The students aren't being asked to think! We are taught to read, memorize, regurgitate, and then start again next semester.

I also think that these types of education changes to encourage creativity and critical thinking in students in even more crucial in developing countries. They are trying to mold the leaders of tomorrow's generation. In America, even if education isn't ideal, we will have leaders, we will have politicians, economists, educators, etc. But if Ghana's education system doesn't focus on students expanding their minds and thinking critically, the system is too precarious to take care of itself the way the American system can.

Okay, I have to run now, but these are some thoughts I've been having about education reform in Ghana. (I'm not even going to get started on caning, which is standard practice here.)

Again, keep in mind that I really don't know what I'm saying. If I've said something factually incorrect/ offensive/ stupid, please let me know. All thoughts would be appreciated!

(1) Chapters
(2) One side of the page
(3) Both sides of the page
(4) Education