A member of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, has stressed the need for character formation at the basic level as part a holistic approach to education if Ghana was to prop up its human capital development
"As a psychologist, I will tell you that your character formation is between age three and 12. Your core being is established by the time you are leaving primary school. Your ability to have values and to be ethical is established way from that age," he said.
In a five-point recommendation to a 30-member Technical Working Group inaugurated in Accra yesterday to develop Ghana's Human Capital Strategy, Prof. Puplampu who is also the Vice Chancellor of the Central University implied that the maxim 'catch them young and they shall be yours forever' is what Ghana must adopt to change its narrative.
"It requires that we tackle this (issue of human capital development) not at the level of the politician in parliament but from the kids in primary and secondary school.
To the extent that the young person between the ages of 10 and 15 years old can tell the mother or father that 'mum or dad, it is not done this way," he said.
He said "We must create that stock of mindset which enables us to function in an orderly manner. That is why I say it is not all at about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education."
According to him, human capital goes beyond the education and employment for the survival of an individual.
"It is the skill sets, mindsets, and dispositions which are required to make a society develop economically, run sustainably, equitably, competitively and in an orderly manner."
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To him, whiles the hard side of human capital development may produce student's knowledge skills, aptitudes, capacities and capabilities for economic survival and progress, the character formation side of it - attitudes, credibility, ethicality would equip the students with disposition for societal stability, progress and peace.
Organisations represented on the 30-member working group include the Ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Employment and Labour Relations, Education, Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Trade and Industry, Bank of Ghana, the Ghana Education Service, Vice Chancellors Ghana, the Educational Reform Secretariat, Conference of Independent Universities, and Vice Chancellors of Technical Universities.
Others are National Council for Curriculum Assessment, Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Ghana Statistical Service, Association of Ghana Industries, Ghana Employers Association, National Service Secretariat, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Development and Planning Institute, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
The rest are National Council for Persons Living with Disability, Private Enterprises Federation, Trades Union Congress, Centre for Democratic Development, National Youth Authority, Africa Centre for Economic Transformation, Pre-tertiary Education Directorate, and Ghana Tertiary Education Commission.
