AN OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA, AND TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, HONOURABLE HARUNA IDRISU.

The funding of Senior High Schools across the country can be minimised or even eliminated with the right educational strategies.

I published a climate change book last year titled The Search for the Green Planet. Although it focuses on climate change, it offers several opportunities for individuals, governments, and private institutions, among others.

I sent a copy of this book to key ministries, and also the Ghana Education Service, but received no response. The reason for this letter is that I listened to the Minister of Education, Honourable HARUNA IDRISU, lamenting the amount of money spent on Secondary Schools.

His Excellency, I urge you to take the time to review some of the proposals my book offered in the area of education and consider whether my model of education presented in the book is practical or merely an idea from a writer with no merit.

Based specifically on my ideas in the climate change book, The Search for the Green Planet, I proposed a model where secondary schools move beyond depending solely on government subsidies and create productive, environmentally friendly school enterprises that both reduce costs and generate income.

Summary: How Secondary Schools Can Fund Themselves Through Agriculture and Other Green Enterprises.

The Search for the Green Planet presents an important idea that can be applied to secondary education: schools should not only consume resources; they can also produce some of the resources they need.

The book describes an education system in which boarding-school students grow their own food, with food production becoming part of the learning process. This approach reduces the cost of feeding students while providing them with practical agricultural skills.

This concept could be adapted by secondary schools in Ghana into a School Enterprise and Green Production Programme. Schools with available land could establish vegetable gardens, maize farms, cassava farms, plantain plantations, and other suitable agricultural projects such as livestock rearing and fish farming, among others. Instead of producing only for consumption, schools could generate a surplus and sell it to teachers, parents, local communities, markets, restaurants, and other institutions. The income could then be reinvested into the school.

1. School farms can reduce feeding costs

One of the strongest ideas in the book is that students can participate in producing food for their own consumption. In the fictional educational system described, learners grow food as part of their subjects, meaning the school spends less on feeding them.

Ghanaian secondary schools could adopt a similar approach. A school farm could supply part of the school’s requirements for:

1.  Vegetables
2.  Plantain and cassava
3.  Maize
4.  Fruits
5.  Eggs
6.  Poultry
7.  Fish,
8. Other locally suitable food products

This would allow the school to save money on food purchases while developing an additional source of income from surplus production.

2. Agriculture should become practical education

The book does not present production merely as a commercial activity. It links production with education. For example, students in the fictional system learn by actually producing food, making salt, and even generating electricity.

This creates an opportunity for Ghanaian secondary schools to connect agriculture with subjects such as:

* Science

* Biology

* Chemistry

* Mathematics

* Business

* ICT

* Technical/Vocational Education

* Geography

* Environmental Studies

3. Schools can establish livestock and poultry enterprises

The same principle can be extended beyond crops. Where land and resources permit, schools could establish small-scale:

– Poultry farms → eggs and chickens → school consumption + sales

– Fish farms → fish → school consumption + sales

– Beekeeping → honey + beeswax

– Snail farming → snails + breeding stock

The book’s broader message is that society should identify opportunities, develop practical skills, and turn these skills into productive activities rather than simply waiting for employment or financial support.

4. Tree planting can become both an environmental and economic activity

Tree planting is another important theme in the book. It discusses the significance of planting trees because trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Schools could therefore establish school forests or tree plantations. These would provide environmental benefits while potentially creating long-term economic value through carefully managed forestry, fruit production, and other sustainable uses.

The key lesson from the book is that environmental projects should be planned early and sustainably, rather than introduced only after an environmental crisis has already become severe.

5. Waste can become a source of income

The book strongly discusses pollution, plastics, waste, and recycling. It proposes recyclable or biodegradable packaging and recycling of wastewater as part of environmentally responsible operations.

Secondary schools could establish waste-to-value projects, where students collect and separate:

* Plastic bottles

* Polythene

* Paper

* Cardboard

* Metal

* Organic waste

Recyclable materials can be sold to recycling companies, while organic waste can potentially be converted into compost or other useful agricultural inputs.

This creates a powerful cycle:

School waste → sorting → recycling/composting → income → reinvestment in the school.

6. Schools can produce their own energy

The book discusses how students can generate their own electricity as part of their education.

This could motivate secondary schools to explore solar energy projects. Solar panels could decrease electricity costs over time, while students could gain knowledge about renewable energy, engineering, and climate technology.

The book specifically urges young scientists to use solar energy for cooking, fish processing, and general energy needs.

7. Students should be trained to become entrepreneurs

The book’s fictional education system identifies students’ talents and interests, eventually giving entrepreneurial students opportunities to develop business plans. Approved projects receive support and evolve into businesses that create employment and economic activity.

This provides a valuable model for secondary schools: every school could incorporate an entrepreneurship component into its agricultural and environmental projects.

Students could learn how to:

1. Identify a need.

2. Find solutions for the need.

3. Develop a product.

4. Calculate production costs.

5. Set a selling price.

6. Market the product.

7. Keep financial records.

8. Reinvest profits.

9. Expand the enterprise.

8. Schools can establish a revolving enterprise fund

Instead of spending all revenue immediately, schools could set up a School Enterprise Fund.

For example:

Revenue from the school farm → operating costs → profit → reinvestment → expansion → increased production → increased revenue.

A part could support school development projects, while another part could be reinvested into the enterprise. This approach would gradually lessen reliance on external financial aid.

9. The ultimate goal: schools as centres of production and innovation

The key lesson from The Search for the Green Planet is that education should do more than prepare young people for jobs. It should equip them with the knowledge and practical skills to create value, solve problems, protect the environment, and generate employment.

The book explores sustainable development, sustainable jobs, green development, and the green revolution as ways to alter humanity’s interaction with the planet.

Applied to Ghanaian secondary schools, this could lead to a new model:

 Learn, Produce, Sell, Reinvest and Sustain.

Under this model, a secondary school could operate simultaneously as a school, farm, laboratory, training centre, recycling centre, innovation hub, and small enterprise.

In conclusion, the main message from The Search for the Green Planet is that secondary schools should be encouraged to become partially self-sufficient through productive, climate-smart, and environmentally friendly activities.

Agriculture can form the foundation, but it should extend beyond farming. Poultry, fish farming, beekeeping, tree planting, recycling, composting, renewable energy, food processing, handicrafts, and other student-led ventures can create practical learning opportunities while generating revenue.

This approach would address three issues at once:

– Reducing the financial burden on schools,

– Equipping young people with employable and entrepreneurial skills, and

– Developing a generation capable of contributing to Ghana’s green economy.

The book’s fictional school system shows that when production is integrated into education, students can learn useful skills while institutions reduce some operating costs.

In essence, the book’s message can be turned into a powerful policy idea for Ghana: Every secondary school should be encouraged and supported to develop at least one productive enterprise capable of generating income, reducing expenditure, and teaching students practical skills.

Finally, to put a smile on the face of every Ghanaian teacher, this model can be the perfect opportunity to get salaries doubled, or tripled when properly executed.

Thank you for your attention, His Excellency,  the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, and The Honorable Minister of Education, Haruna Idrisu.

Christopher Klove

Author of The Search for the Green Planet.

Tel: 0504322144 / 0275251244

Email: christopherklove@gmail.com