The Luxury in living in the Village

Looking at how the cities and towns are overly populated and limited due to the Rural-Urban migration, one might think that too soon there will be no one living in the villages.

So many people in the villages have been told of good stories in the cities like Better Jobs, Education, Cars, Houses, Quality clothing and Health Care thereby convincing them to join them in the city.

Surprisingly, when they arrive in the city those stories seems to exist in a story book but does not merely exist in reality. Instead of returning to the Village, they sometimes force their way up making them engaging in all sort of living just to provide for themselves.

Sometime you may think the city life is better than village life. Children living in the city can get a good education, because there are better schools in the town than in the village. When a person falls ill there are good government and private hospital in the city to get treatment. There is electricity, highway, communication, telecommunication, plumb facilities in the city. So people can lead a comfortable and enjoyable life.  But thinking of it, are people in the cities really living a comfortable lifestyle?

The Pros in living in the Village;

1. It's beautiful and with a calming atmosphere. Village has the best environmental scenery for humans both young and old. There are less pollution in the air and the greenly atmosphere makes it pleasant to avoid some communicable diseases.

2. There is virtually no crime. This is arguable but certainly true. Comparing the high number of crimes recorded in the cities to villages; indicate that one is safer without the Police in the Village than the city.

3. The community is close and supportive. The village community makes rural life socially pleasant. You get the chance to meet the friendly and helpful neigbours. Since there are no facebook, Twitter, TV games in the village traditional way of social interaction is strong. Every one business is up for discussion and support is duly given.

4. Get fresh vegetables and fruit everyday. Talking about fresh foods from the farm to the dinning hall, then the Village community are living longer because of that. The city dwellers never get to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

5. There is virtually no noise. The city is over capacitated with many unpleasant sounds which makes sometimes hurt the ears. The Village welcomes ‘No Disturbance’ tag.

Now to the Cos in living in a city;

*Living in the country is essentially far more time consuming. 10 miles to nearest petrol station, 2 hours to work, 1 hour to cover 20 miles to see a dentist thanks to the traffic lights everywhere directing delays.


* No gas supply, frequent power cuts in stormy weather. City dwellers mostly complain about the quality service delivery of the energy providers. Meanwhile, the Village community is comfortable sitting at the fire side sharing jokes and stories.
* Car use was essential- Without a car you are pretty much stuck. Public transport is a nightmare and can be expensive. Getting a taxi is extremely expensive. Most prayers to God by City dwellers include owing a car while village community asks for energy to walk a longer distance.

If you had to choose between raising your kids in the city or village, which would you choose? According to a recent Rent.com survey, both locations have pluses and minuses, and parents' attachment to their city or village often dictates where they choose to raise their children.

According to the survey, 42 percent said they have always lived in the city and are raising their kids there, while nearly the same percentage chose to stay put in the suburbs to raise their families.

Well, Village communities also live in luxury. The Choice is yours!

By: Samuel Mantey

Email: sammyoo3@yahoo.com

Twitter: SamuelMantey

Should polytechnics be offered the opportunity to offer degree courses? What will be the effect in the trades industry?

Polytechnic education has contributed significantly to the development process of some countries. Indeed, in the advance world technical and vocation graduates has been played a pivotal role in the nation building-putting up new innovation and ideas to solve environmental issues.

A developed country is sometimes rated with the quality graduates from the technical field who are on the field ensuring stability, improving standard among competition.

In Ghana, the Debate of ensure effectiveness of Polytechnic education has been started as some expert are calling on government to allow the polytechnics to award degree programmers.

Parliament in 2009 passed the ‘Polytechnic bill’ recognized the country’s ten Polytechnics as technical institutions with proper organizational management structures and academic validation procedures to run bachelor of technology degree courses but since then degree programmes have not been listed in the institutions.

The Deputy Minister for Education in charge of tertiary institutions Mahama Ayariga has stated unequivocally that government would continue to consider calls by stakeholders to make polytechnics degree awarding institutions but with caution.

According to him, government was being cautious because, it did not want the situation whereby the opportunity would be granted and the polytechnics began to behave like universities that were established to run certain academic programmes but later on decided to digress into other areas of learning, thereby defeating the purpose for which they were established.

Mr. Mahama Ayariga pledged that he would rather personally support the introduction of degree programmes in the area of technical and vocational courses in addition to the science courses that are already in place and not for all other programmes.

The Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Polytechnics (CORP) Reverend Professor Daniel A. Nyarko admitted, that in recent times polytechnics had been severely criticized that they were deviating from their core mandate of providing training for the middle-level manpower requirements of the nation.

This assertion, he said, tends to overlook the full potentials of the polytechnics as tertiary institutions, adding that, it rather seems to suggest that polytechnics were running courses that were either not approved or were outside their mandate. “In all humility, I wish to state that this is not the case. The polytechnics are running programs or courses that are approved by the regulatory authorities” he declared.

Rev. Prof. Nyarko who is also the Rector of the Accra Polytechnic indicated that polytechnics were empowered by law to award Higher National Diplomas (HNDs), Diplomas, Certificates and Degrees, arguing that polytechnics were not established and confined to providing training only at HND level.

The Chairman of CORP reiterated calls to make polytechnics in Ghana degree awarding institutions because international best practices gave that indication.

“Other polytechnics in Europe and elsewhere have expanded their scope beyond the classical diploma programmes and have all become universities offering programmes up to doctoral level. That is what polytechnics in Ghana should be encouraged and resourced to do. The advantage is that it will offer an alternative avenue for higher education, especially for the technical and vocational graduates”, he stated.

Former President of the Polytechnic Teachers Association (POTAG) Mr Godfred Agbedu told Property Express that awarding Degrees to Polytechnics will rather enhance productive and increase enrollment at the various institutions.

He stated that the Polytechnic are empowered to award Masters Programs but because of the lack of technological advancement the institution is not in position to go that far.

Mr Godfred Agbedu emphasized that education in the polytechnic institutions will improve to it best across the West African sub-region if government boldly allow the institution to award degree programmes.

He stressed that countries like South Korea, Japan, and China have been able to advance because of investment in technical and vocational education.

By: Samuel Mantey

Email: Sammyoo3@yahoo.com

Twitter: SamuelMantey