Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has thrown his weight behind calls by the Christian Council for the State to give churches greater involvement in the management of mission schools.
According to him, allowing churches to play a more active role in the running of mission schools would encourage them to make further investments in Ghana’s education sector.
Mr Nketiah made the remarks at the official launch of a project to construct a multi-million-cedi College of Education as part of the centenary celebration of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church at Sekyredumase in the Ashanti Region.
He said religious organisations had historically invested in education because of their desire to raise children according to the values, beliefs, and discipline of their respective faiths.
“The main driving force for religious bodies to invest in the building of schools is the desire to bring up their children in the core beliefs and discipline of their faith,” he said.
Mr Nketiah argued that the payment of government funds towards the running of mission schools should not be used as a reason to completely strip the churches that established the schools of their rights and responsibilities.
He described such an argument as flawed, noting that parents of students in the schools were also taxpayers.
“The argument that because state funds are invested in these schools, the churches that founded them must be stripped of their rights to teach the basic tenets of their religion is flawed,” he said.
“The parents of the children in these schools are also taxpayers, so the use of state resources does not mean the churches should lose their identity and influence over the schools they established.”
Mr Nketiah noted that missionary bodies were pioneers of formal education in the Gold Coast and had continued to play an important role in Ghana’s education sector.
“The missions were the pioneers of education in the Gold Coast and continue to play a key role in the sector to date,” he said.
He pointed to the strong performance and reputation of many mission schools as evidence that the churches had contributed significantly to the country’s educational development.
“The fact that most of the so-called Grade A schools are mission schools means there is something they are doing right, and that must be encouraged rather than diluted,” he added.
Mr Nketiah further argued that parents and students had the freedom to choose their preferred schools during the admission process.
He said once a student was admitted to a mission school, the family had effectively agreed to abide by the institution’s rules and disciplinary code.
“Parents and their wards are free to exercise their right of choice at the point of application for admission,” he said.
“Once they are admitted to their choice of school, they have already committed themselves to the disciplinary code and values of that school,” he added.
He therefore called for stronger collaboration between the state and religious organisations to protect the character and values of mission schools while ensuring that the schools continue to contribute to national development.
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