Grade Point Understanding

Boy, I love my sleep so much, I just had to use that as an illustration! I could tell you that you are capable of creating the next big thing as Apple Inc. (which recently hit a record $1 trillion in market value) but truth is said, I would be lying to you. See! You can do that and so much more. Sometimes,I am inclined to reason that belief is probably the only recipe for success but then again, some of the poorest people on earth are strong and ardent believers so let’s hold on to that thought.

My sincerest hope as I write this piece is not only to inspire you to greater heights; but to equally provoke, incite and unlock other hidden perspectives of your views on politics, education, democracy, economics, morality, or even society but most importantly, yourself. Hopefully you will think and reflect on a much deeper scale – maybe not on a Chuck Lorre kind of level but perhaps something close to that.

So here is probably the greatest scam of the 21st century that has a cry baby with a fond liking for Twitter as the leader of the free world and two men battling it out there for the status of who’s the greatest goat: “SCHOOL IS A SCAM!” They go on to add that “Oh um even Bill and Zuckerberg were drop-outs you know” and all of those similar apathetic narratives they have never actually sat down to research.

Now, I will tell you a fun fact. About 58 million children all around the world do not have access to EDUCATION and so for the purposes of this article, I will not argue on the differences between schooling and education. The problem perhaps about school in West Sub-Saharan Africa is the entire framework and curriculum that is heavily built on theories and the abstract of things without an enabling environment for harnessing creativity and ingenuity, not to talk of practicality. Regardless of this axiom, many young and brilliant individuals from our region have proven themselves worthy in the fields of science, technology, sports, showbiz, leadership and politics. Schooling attempts to refine the crude and raw talent that is inherently ingrained within every individual and so Math is indeed a critical aspect of sharpening your analytical and thinking skills. Many of us are certainly not going to do much with dy/dx but here is a littlereminder: about 58 million children cannot do simple additions or go to the supermarket and reason as to what is cheap or expensive and why that it is. It is funny indeed but experiences shape our thoughts and prejudices and so does the schooling experience in so many ways that we don’t even realize it. I think schooling is a necessary privilege and I hope the world sees it as such.

Never ever be persuadedinto thinking you are also going to end up like Zuckerberg or Kylie Jenner because most, if not all of the system analysts and programmers that create and maintain Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba and Amazon went to school. The world’s complex and heavily interconnected financial system is currently managed by the crème de la crème of financial experts and some people still think that school is a scam?! One miscalculation to the tenth decimal and NASA could set the world on fire but of course school is a scam! If you can sign in to your Twitter account and retweet “School is a scam”, it first of all means, you can read and most importantly, you possess a fair understanding of the Internet of Things (IoT). 58 million children out there can’t even fathom how devices communicate with each other.

Here is what I will tell you. Study really hard and do your utmost with all the resources at your disposal to make good grades because while GPAs are indeed not a standard measure of your capabilities as an individual, they are still important. It’s the hard knock life. Work harder and discover yourself through the schooling process. Build fruitful and productive relationships and don’t for one second think you are what your grade point average says because you are indeed outstanding. Again,perspective but alas one more thing, believe too!

Hello, I’m Herbert Dankyi, Chair of the CiC, University of Ghana Executive Board. I am currently pursuing a Banking and Finance major with a passionate desire for capital markets, investment banking and emerging technological trends. I personally believe that challenges and mishaps perforate the deepest parts of our thinking capacities, and in the process, whips our imaginative cognition inside out, demanding of it, ground-breaking solutions to society’s issues as unending means for survival; but in the end, you choose.