Africa Needs a Radical Education Revolution - Starting from Ghana, says Ing. Peter Debrah

In today’s fast-changing world, nations that rise are those that have embraced education systems rooted in their identity, raw materials, culture, and innovation. Africa is rich in natural resources and overflowing with talent, is still struggling to break the chains of colonial educational legacies.

The time has come for a radical, transformative, and culturally grounded education system. One that markets African talent and stops copying the West blindly. And this change must start from Ghana, the Black Star of Africa.

Our current education model teaches us everything except ourselves. We train young people to memorize foreign history, speak borrowed languages, and master imported ideas, while our gold, bauxite, lithium, cocoa, oil, and fertile lands are left underutilized or exported with no value added. We teach students to be good workers, not innovative creators.

We promote fluency in English over fluency in talent. We grade intelligence by how well a student speaks a second language while failing to identify the genius in their hands, hearts, and crafts.

Let’s learn from others: the best welders in India don’t speak English, yet they’re internationally certified and globally respected. China, Japan, and Korea dominate engineering and IT without forcing their people to abandon their native tongues. Their systems were designed to build their nations, not to impress foreign investors. Their educational approach is practical, culturally grounded, and aligned with national interests.

Why can’t we do the same in Africa? Why should a student fail school because they struggle with a colonial language, even though they excel in mechanics, carpentry, agriculture, or software design?

Ghana must lead a new wave of educational reform that empowers the youth to master their environment, innovate from their cultural base, and rise through understanding their land, language, and resources. Our schools should teach practical knowledge of farming, mining, coding, robotics, welding, hydro engineering, and entrepreneurship, starting from the basic level, in our local languages.

The world now values skills over accent. Knowledge over imitation. Mastery over memorization.

It is time to rewire the curriculum, upgrade our priorities, and refocus education to market African potential. A radical education revolution must happen now. We must stop training our children to work for systems that exploit them and start grooming them to build systems that sustain them.

Let this message echo across all platforms—Facebook, Twitter, radio, newspapers, and community halls: Africa’s education must be African in thought, global in reach, practical in design, and transformative in impact.

And Ghana must lead the way.

By: Ing. Peter Godslove Debrah

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