Africa urged to develop educational system rooted in culture

Professor Kofi Asare Opoku, Acting President of African University College of Communications (AUCC), has advocated an educational system with content rooted in Africa culture for Africans.

Professor Opoku said this would be the only means to produce proud, self-assertive and self-confident Africans, to determine the course and focus of Ghana’s destiny.

He made the call in Accra at a press launch of AUCC celebration of the African Union (AU) at 50 years, which falls on May 25.

The celebration would be on the theme: ”Promoting Africanism through Education.”

“Our ancestors had their own form of education that enabled them to live independent, self-reliant and creative lives by establishing their own societies based on their philosophy of life and created a civilization whose integrity is African”, Prof. Opoku said.

He said since the advent of colonization, a new system of education, which lacks African content, had been imposed on the people, making most Africans to imitate foreign cultures.

Prof Opoku said the AUCC was committed to providing education that would be designed with African course to give students increased awareness of themselves as Africans.

In a related development, Mr Ernest Lartey, the outgoing Students Representative Council President of AUCC, wished the African Union a happy 50th Anniversary celebrations, and expressed the hope that the Union would involve the youth in developing African programmes.

Representatives from the various West African Countries shared goodwill messages, calling for peace and a united Union in promoting African culture and identity.

As part of the one week programme, the AUCC has organized reading of African poetry, theatre performance and student mini-fare for the sale of African wears and African movies from Tuesday 21 to Friday 24.

The AU Day is an annual commemoration of the formation of the Organization of African Unity in 1963, later known as the AU.

The AU comprises 53 member states and brings the continent to collectively address the challenges it has faced, such as armed conflict, climate change, and poverty.

Africa Day is a celebration of African unity and culture.

Source: GNA