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KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR. G.K.

ABLEDU

I am conscious that you may have already heard a lot of what I’ve got to say, but I would like to
emphasize some points because this subject, “Ghana beyond Aid”, is very important to me and
the Government of Ghana.

Ghana’s President recently launched “Ghana beyond Aid” as his long-term vision for the
Country. On the occasion of the unveiling of this grand vision, the President was crystal clear
about the urgent need for Ghana to wean herself off development aid as much as possible. The
vision statement has since become the new SLOGAN in town and the most discussed issue
among politicians, policymakers and the public.

Ghana Beyond Aid is meant to be more than a slogan. It is meant to propel us into the frame of
mind that would quicken our pace of development. It is meant to change our mindset from one of
dependency, to one of achieving our destiny. It is meant to put us in charge of our own affairs,
and make us truly independent. Above all, Ghana Beyond Aid will give us the respect and
dignity we deserve.

The agenda of a Ghana Beyond Aid, essentially is to mobilise and consicientise Ghanaians "that
no one was going to come from anywhere to develop Ghana for them other than Ghanaians
themselves," the President pointed out

The 13-member Ghana Beyond Aid Charter Committee that was constituted by the President
Akufo-Addo in June last year, submitted a strategic document which was a reflection of the
collective inputs of 30 institutions. This is expected to become the mobilising force for Ghana's
development

Prof. Adei, speaking at a public lecture on the topic: Ghana beyond aid: how can we get there?,
outlined measures and strategies to address this question.

These measures and strategies, he said, included sustained quality leadership and commitment,
attitudinal change, efficient and professional government institutions, strict adherence to the rule
of law, quality social capital, sustained improvement in economic infrastructure, a quantum shift
in the conduct of politics, an efficient labour market and a strong anti-corruption regime

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Value Addition Activities

Ghana ought to utilize its own resources and rely more on appropriate home-grown policies to
unlock the economic potentials of the country. The realisation of his vision of Ghana Beyond
Aid “requires a deliberate, qualitative change in all aspects of our lives; especially, in the
structure of our economy, the nature of our infrastructure, the education of our young people and
acquisition of skills, and, above all, in our attitudes and holding firm to the values that define
us.”

Getting Ghana to a situation Beyond Aid, means adding value to Ghanaian exports. Ghana had
been blessed with many natural resources including arable lands, which was meant to make
“Ghana a standout country” if its resources had been systematically exploited with value addition
before exportation. We have to stop the export of materials such as cocoa, gold, bauxite,
manganese and oil in their raw state for the following reasons:

1. Though Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produced about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa, Ghana
earned a paltry two per cent per every one billion dollar of chocolate income while the
global chocolate market was worth $131.7 billion.
2. Our cocoa farmers, for example, get less than 10% of the value of a bar of chocolate, and
yet cocoa is the main ingredient.
3. On the world market, bauxite in its raw form is worth about $42 per metric tonne.
Processing it just one stage further into alumina oxide will fetch twice that amount.
4. Refining the alumina oxide into alumina will increase the value by seven times, and
smeltered aluminium fetches one hundred fold what it gets in the raw state.

Ghana’s Destiny with Aid


Development Assistance has played a significant role in Ghana’s economic development and
transformation over the past decades. Before the late 1970s and the early 1980’s, aid was
regarded merely as welfare. However, in 1983, when Ghana signed up to the Structural
Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the IMF, foreign development assistance officially
commenced. Aid became an essential part of government financing since and was quite
responsive to the political cycle of the country. Meaning, in periods where Ghana had democratic
governments, aid support was higher than in periods of military rule. The support during these
early periods targeted very much at unlocking the structural difficulties in the economy of the

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country. However, the support did not yield the desired result leading many- both home and
abroad- to question the relevance of aid.
However, in the late 1990’s, the focus of development assistance changed from support for
structural reforms to supporting targeted sectors of “Good Governance” and “Poverty reduction”.
Ghana, subsequently, adopted the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy I&II which allowed the
country to access concessional loans and grants from Multilateral and Development Assistance
Committee (DAC) bi-lateral countries. Governance institutions as Judicial Services, Commission
for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) received
substantial grant funding support during this time. The most symbolic of such support is the
construction of the Commercial Court building of the Supreme Court financed by DANIDA in
2004. Ghana enjoyed significant aid around this period, and the country was very much
dependent on aid especially after it qualified for debt forgiveness under the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

With the discovery of oil and gas resources in commercial quantities along the shores of Ghana
in 2009/10, and Ghana’s transition into a low middle-income economy, the Aid architecture
changed markedly as Development Partners communicated their intent to scale down their
support. In fact, the intent got officially sanctioned as on the 21st June 2012, the Government of
Ghana and 15 DP’s signed a compact dubbed “Compact for Leveraging Partnerships for Shared
Growth and Development”. The Compact which is from 2012 to 2022 had fourfold objectives
with the topmost as “to reduce Ghana’s dependence on ODA and with increased levels and
reliance on alternative development funding and domestic resource mobilisation”. Since then, aid
has been on the decline with grants as a percentage of total domestic revenue averaging 12%
(2010-2015). As a percentage of GDP, grant is about 1.2% (2008-2018). In the current
circumstance, it is difficult to categorically suggest that Ghana is an “aid” dependent country.

Despite the slowing of development assistance to Ghana, it would be utterly naïve on my part to
downplay significant impact the little is having on critical sectors of the Ghanaian economy. For
instance, as reported in the 2016 Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR), 4.2% of the
entire education expenditure (GH¢ 362,480,036.11) for the FY2015 came from the donor
community. The national budget provided for 68% and the remaining 16.8% came from the

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internally generated fund, GetFund, 8.7% and Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) was
2.2%.

Curiously, the budgeted amount only covered the entire compensation expenses, and the other
sources covered the provision of capital infrastructure as well as goods and service. Donor
support was for Capex and goods and services. There are similar aid supported interventions in
many of the other sectors we cannot gross over. However, these supports are ephemeral and
obviously thinking beyond them is a right thing to do at this moment in history where there is
growing resentment and apprehension among citizens of Donor Nations concerning globalisation
and global development assistance architecture.

For instance, the 2018 budget statement and economic policy of Government envision an overall
deficit budget of Gh¢10,971.4 million representing 4.5 percent of GDP. Projected total revenue
based on the economic outlook for 2018 show that about GH¢51,039.1 million will to be
mobilised in the form of domestic revenue and grants. This represents 21.1 percent of GDP. In
the same period, the government plans to spend GH¢62,010.3 million representing 25.7 percent
of GDP. Meaning that government is spending more than its projected income by an amount of
Gh¢10,971.4 million. The financing gap is filled with borrowings from domestic and foreign
sources. Simply put, we are spending what we do not have.

The teacher factor in providing quality education

One of the important challenges for teachers today is their continuation as the backbone of
society, providing the knowledge and educating young people for addressing complex global
challenges and substantial improvement of a new generation learners and offers opportunities for
originality in idea development and use, including research.

It is said that quality is not destination, it is a continuous journey. Quality means doing the right
things right. Doing things right - is efficiency and doing right things is effectiveness. Quality in
education is to learn the right things and to learn them well.

The success of any education system depends on the quality of teachers, which, in turn, depends
on the effective teaching / learning process. Teachers' role is of vital significance for the
development of society and appropriate changes in the society. Thus, the quality of higher

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education depends upon quality of those who impart it. Teachers are the most important
components of any educational system. Teachers play most crucial role in the development of
the education system as a whole and also in imparting and maintaining the standards of higher
education.

In the present scenario, the 'personality' of the teachers has deteriorated. Teaching is considered
as one of the noblest professions but unfortunately this profession is losing its status in the
society because of modernization, political influence, castism, corruption and other unfair means.
For many teachers, especially, teaching profession has become easy source of earning money.
Making many money by unfair means like malpractices in examination resulted in decline of the
quality of teaching values. Changing social attitude, nonresponsiveness and poor level of
accountability, emphasis on western system of education, impact of modernization, etc. are the
factors responsible for the degradation of teaching values in the society.

“The primary task of a society is to find a real teacher, one who performs his duty with
perfection and dedication and is a perfect moral example for the society” - Rabindranath Tagore

Today the teacher is moving away from being a “transmitter of knowledge” and led more and
more towards becoming a “mediator in the construction of knowledge”, a facilitator and, even at
times, a social worker. He or she has to foster the development of social skills and create a
learning environment that will encourage young people to learn to live together and to become
responsible citizens. Faced with expanding access to secondary education, the growing
heterogeneity of students, the redefinition of objectives, learning content, working methods and
evaluation, the rising autonomy of educational institutions, the increasing participation of young
people in decision making at the school level, and so on, there are some who do not hesitate to
speak about a “new teaching profession”, which has become much more demanding and
complex.

At all levels, teaching is increasingly being considered as a real profession and not simply as a
talent. This recognition thus necessitates a sound professional training and the acquisition of
skills well beyond those related to subject knowledge. The criteria for initial training,
recruitment, integration and in-service training concern all teachers, but particularly those in the
post-primary level. Some subjects that teachers were initially trained in are disappearing.

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Consequently, teachers need to be redeployed to accommodate the changing roles and functions
within the teaching system.

Professional freedom of the teacher is of crucial importance in developing quality


in education. ... A teacher plays a crucial and demanding role in the process of
students learning by creating a context in which the students' desire and ability to learn can work
most effectively.

Teachers have to possess a great deal of knowledge and skills with regard to both teaching and
assessment practices in order to meet those demands and standards of quality education.
Effective teacher learning and professional development is important for student achievement

As mathematics and science teachers, let us remind ourselves of the role science and engineering
has played in Ghana’s development. When I speak about this, I tend to use the term STEM –
science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

STEM has provided the people and knowledge needed to make discoveries and deliver the
innovation necessary to support Ghana’s economic and social advancement.

It is for this reason that the Government of Ghana attaches extreme importance to the teaching of
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at all levels of the nation’s
educational system

Teachers are to leverage on opportunities presented by the science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) to help make Ghana self-dependent. This is because the STEM programme
could help nurture and produce a “critical mass of scientists and innovators to usher the country
into a future of hope, opportunities and possibilities”.

Ssssssssssssssss

Introduction

Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honor for me to deliver, a keynote speech at this very important forum.

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May I firstly take the opportunity to formally welcome you all to this forum of teachers of maths.

As a proud member, I am passionate about maintaining our cultural identity.

It is important that we gather on occasions such as this, to acknowledge our achievements and
failures as mathematicians, and I hope we will spend some time this morning doing that.

We hope to describe strategies that have proven effective elsewhere at supporting teaching in
mathematics and promoting deeper learning for all types of students. We hope also to explore
how schools can develop strategies to support teachers of mathematics in their efforts to raise
achievement.

Today also presents an opportunity to reflect on whether we are adequately preparing ourselves
to advance our nation into the future, to produce (if you like) the “industrial heritage of
tomorrow”

My talk today will consist of three parts

I will first describe the nature of the slogan ….. Following this, I will show how Asia can
rebalance itself, turning threats into opportunities. Finally, I would like ….

Let me take you on this journey for the next 30 minutes.

In the words of Swami Vivekananda “We want that education by which character is formed,
strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's
feet” In conclusion, quality of any society depends upon the quality of educational institutions,
that is possible only if the quality teachers will impart quality education through innovative
methods.
If Ghana is to realize the dream of Ghana beyond aid, we the quality teachers who will impart
quality education through innovative methods.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Equity and Deeper Learning in Mathematics

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While the movement for standards and accountability has largely succeeded in bringing greater
attention to the issues surrounding student achievement (i.e. the fact that poor students, English
language learners and students with special needs are consistently performing at lower levels),
surprisingly little attention has been given to the strategies and conditions that are necessary to
make higher achievement more likely. Missing from much of the policy debate related to student
achievement is how to support and cultivate effective teaching in schools and how to motivate
and engage students through teaching strategies that foster deeper learning and the utilization of
higher order thinking skills.

The theme for this conference is very timely in the circumstances to which I have referred.
…..

It is my hope that this Conference will provide plenty of opportunity for us to exchange useful
views, ideas and experience which will influence our future activity as well as our present work.
The targets of GBA activities can be defined as including not only ,…..

I do sincerely hope that our seminar today will provide us with useful insights to contribute to
the GBA Forum, particularly highlighting how the issue of regional economic cooperation and
integration can be effectively linked to the discussion on communication strategy and aide
effectiveness.

Thank you very much for your kind attention and I hope the seminar will be a great success.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

In another vein, Ojimba, (2012) suggested four strategies for improving the performance of
students in mathematics as follows:

1. groupings into students’ ability during teaching of mathematics in the classroom; the
strategy of constructivism should be imbibed in teaching mathematics, that is for students
to learn and sustain their learning they must be in control of their learning.
2. He also added that use of instructional aids and games as well as using computer-aided
instruction are the strategies that can be used to improve performance of students in

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mathematics. Edukugho, (2010) quoted Chief Kieth Richards, Managing Director,
Promasidor Nigeria Limited explained that the mathematics competition A sponsorship
nationwide is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a way of addressing
the following: Changing the perception of Nigerian students that mathematics is a very
difficult subject.

Reversing the negative statistics from WAEC showing a high failure rate in mathematics
exams.

Enhancing the understanding that mathematics is the bedrock of technological inventions and
growth.

Ensuring that students pass mathematics to facilitate admission for higher studies in numerate
academic disciplines.

Awakening a conscious interest for mathematics amongst pupils from their cradle age.
Creating a credible medium for identifying, encouraging and rewarding brilliance.
Therefore, it is clear that there are many ways that can be followed in order to improve the
performance of secondary school students in mathematics, such as the provision of adequate
facilities both teaching and physical, qualified mathematics teachers, developing positive
attitude of students towards mathematics, involvement of parents in the education of their
children, using proper methods of teaching the subject, organization of quizzes and
competition among and between schools and so on and so forth.

Present Scenario of Performance in Mathematics and Science

Mathematics, science and technology are the panacea to the country’s development challenges
but regrettably, Ghana had only become the consumers of technology instead of producers due to
poor performance of students in Maths and Science at the Senior High School level.

Concerns of government over the poor performance of students in Maths and Science deepen.
Every year thousands of students sit the exams, and every year over half of them fail at least one
of the three core subjects, the most crucial ones in the development of one’s education.
Maths, English and Science. There is the need for a swift reversal of the trend to spur national
development.

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Prof Fletcher, who is the Dean of Faculty of Education at the University of Ghana, blamed the
appalling performance in the two core subjects on poor policy initiatives, application of wrong
teaching methods, unqualified teachers and poor preparation by students towards examinations.

The Dean made this known during the West African Examination Council’s (WAEC) 21st
Endowment Fund lecture held on the theme: "Performance in Mathematics and Science;
Breaking the jinx."

Professor Fletcher ascribed the poor performance to limited teaching and learning resources,
unqualified mathematics and science teachers flooding the education sector and lack of
preparation by students to invest quality time in studies and examinations.

He said the teacher training institutions in many cases trained teachers to master the pedagogy
[teaching skills] to handle mathematics and science, but unfortunately, those teachers are
deficient in the content of the subjects.

In another instances, he said, graduates billed to teach the two core subjects, could have control
of the subject matter but lacked the pedagogy to deliver the lessons with the appropriate alacrity
and teaching aids.

“If we want to halt the rot, we have to look at what is happening, weak computational skills of
students, low confidence of students, and teachers doing the same thing over and over again,” he
said.

According to him, whiles states like the United States of America, United Kingdom and China,
have used deliberate policies to promote the teaching and learning of mathematics and science to
spur their technological advancement and growth, the Ghanaian society was still characterised
with superstitious beliefs.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimated in 2015 that if Ghana
could realise universal basic skills this would increase the country’s gross domestic product by
2000 per cent.

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Clearly the need to develop new skills is not solely associated with new green industries.
Continuous training is an essential part within any restoration or maintenance project. Much like
the history and culture of the sites being worked on, for many individuals learning their trade
involves handing skills from generation to generation. These are skills that take many years to
develop and craft; challenges which we must seek to prepare for.

Thank you all again for your time and input; it is very much valued. I hope you enjoy the
remainder of your day here in Caerphilly Castle.

Today, as requested by the organizers, let me first start with a brief report on…….

I then would like to discuss how has the global economic crisis impacted on domestic and
regional economy, taking the Southeast Asia as an example. Thirdly, I would like to dwell
further on the issue of regional economic cooperation particularly in the domestic context using
Viet Nam as an example. Then, I will discuss the issue of communication before linking all these
topics back to the broader issue of aid effectiveness. As you appreciate, the topics requested by
the organizers for me to discuss in this keynote speech are wide ranging, and I hope to elaborate
on the issues further during the panel discussions following this keynote speech.

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