Just recently, my younger sibling brought her homework from school and she needed some help with it. One of them was religious and moral education homework. Religious and moral education has been part of the Ghanaian educational curriculum since I can remember. All they teach in that subject is religion , religious history and the history of our country at the cultural level.
For this homework, she was to talk about how the Ewes migrated to Ghana and Togbe Tsali and even Yaa Asantewaa. I learnt this thing many years ago and I don’t even remember the full story of Togbe Tsali. I had to go online to see if I could find some information on Togbe Tsali but it was not as detailed as what I studied back in the day. My mom was actually complaining about how someone in primary two is studying all this. Truth be told, I studied all this when I was between primary 6 to junior high school 3. And what has this really added to my life? Honestly, nothing if not the fact that I know more about Ghanaian history.
When I’m hungry, my knowledge about Togbe Tsali or Yaa Asantewaa will not put food on my table. It won’t even help me get a job. The best it can do for me is to show that I know my history which I wouldn’t say is very crucial for life today. Growing up, we all learnt about great leaders in our countries and how our forefathers fought for us to gain independence. We learnt about a Kwame Nkurumah and many others who made Ghana who it is and every child growing up in Ghana and passing through our educational system will have information on these happenings at their fingertips. It’s unbelievable that something my grandparents and parents learnt, I have also learnt and those after me are also learning them.
But, looking on a broader scale, is all of this even necessary? To some extent I would say it is. It’s very important to know your roots and history but my problem is the duration. Imagine having to learn all these things for 9 good years while your mates in China are learning to build machines and all. At best , believe history of our country should stop around primary 4 or even 5 and from there, we start taking the kids through stuff they can use to solve real life problems.
In some countries, they don’t even teach all these history stuff but if we are doing it in our various countries, there should be a timeline to it. Me knowing what Yaa Asantewaa did back in the days would not help me synthesise a drug for Covid or some other disease. So, in as much as history is important, it’s crucial to also know when to blend in other important stuff we can use to solve real life problems in the near future.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, thank you for your time.
all images belong to me.
