News Desk Report
Following many calls by Religious Bodies for the return of the management of their Schools, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has hinted of plans to allow Churches manage Mission Schools across the country to help address the declining moral standards in Schools.
He said “the tradition of discipline, hardwork, and integrity that characterise the Churches…are needed in our country”.
The President made this known at a graduation ceremony at the Trinity College in Accra recently.
Even though President Akufo-Addo did not indicate when the handing over would take place, he said his government was keen on returning the Schools to the Missions.
This is a welcome news to the Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican Churches who during the pre-colonial era, established Schools as part of their missionary activities to help in the propagation of the Gospel.
But a take-over of their schools, placed their administration and management under government control.
The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has over the years been calling for the return of the management of Mission Schools to the Religious Bodies.
The GCBC argued that ceding control of mission schools to the Churches would help address the deteriorating state of discipline and values in these schools.
In May this year, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, explaining the modalities for the handing over said, it would use the same model in the health sector where Mission Hospitals remain under the control of the Religious Bodies but the State would pay salaries of teachers in Mission schools just as it does to Doctors and Nurses in Mission Hospitals.
Responding to the Minister in an interview he granted to The Catholic Standard, Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, CSSp, Episcopal Chairman for Education of the National Catholic Secretariat, lauded Government’s decision to return Mission Schools to the Religious Bodies, saying that it was a recognition of their contribution to quality education delivery.
“I think this is a recognition by government that the Religious Bodies are able partners in the agenda of Government for a better quality of education in our country”, he stressed.
Bishop Kwofie, Ordinary of Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese, said the Church’s calls for the return of the Mission Schools was for it to realise the goals and purposes for which they were established, calling for an educational partnership agreement between the government and the Religious Bodies to facilitate the attainment of these goals and purposes.
