By Arnold Neliba
ADUTOR, NOVEMBER 17, 2020 (CISA)-The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has criticized the introduction of some “policies of Government educational reforms” in the country calling out on the government for ignoring the concerns raised by the mission schools.
“We want to stress the unique critical role Mission Schools have been playing to assist Government to offer quality education delivery in Ghana,” reads a statement released on November 13 by President of GCBC Most Rev Philip Naameh.
“We cannot but vehemently condemn all acts of occultism and homosexuality in some of our educational institutions, promoted or sponsored by people in and outside the schools to the detriment of human dignity and the standard of education in Ghana,” the bishops said.
The bishops condemned the trading of grades in cash or kind, the selling and buying of examination question papers among other examination malpractices witnessed in the education sector.
In the spirit of collaboration in the education sector, the conference renewed calls for the government to implement the process towards signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the government and Religious bodies on the partnership in education delivery.
“This, we believe, will bring to a close some of the challenges we face as Religious bodies with regard to the management of our schools. We feel that this has dragged for far too long.”
“We also encourage the Government to do everything possible to phase out the double-track system which has been fraught with several challenges confronting students, parents, teaching and non-teaching staff,” the prelates said while commending the government for rolling the Free Secondary High School (SHS) programme which seeks to make education accessible for many more graduates from the Junior High School (JHS) level.
The statement was released at the end of the bishop’s conference Annual Plenary Assembly held at Adutor in the Volta Region of Ghana from November 3-13. The theme of the Plenary was “The Word of God: Christian formation for Transformation in Ghana”.
Other issues captured in their statement were the fight against Covid-19 and effect on economy, Political disturbance in the Volta Region, the December 7 General Elections and Human dignity.
“We wish to appeal to all to avoid the tendency of doing anything that will disturb the peace we currently enjoy as a people,” the bishops said assuring Ghanaians of their prayers for a peaceful and successful elections in December.
