Build consensus on code of conduct for public SHSs – Africa Education Watch to stakeholders

The Africa Education Watch is calling for a stakeholder discussion to develop a code of conduct for public Senior High Schools (SHSs) in Ghana.

This call comes on the back of the impasse between the Methodist Church and the Ghana Education Service (GES) over Wesley Girls’ SHS’ decision not to allow Muslim students in the school to take part in the Ramadan fast.

The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has therefore advised “the education stakeholder community not to miss this opportunity to fix this age-old governance challenge” while facilitating “the adoption, through dialogue and multi-stakeholder consensus, of a common Code of Conduct for all SHSs, irrespective of the religious denomination.”

He added that “the current situation, similar to the Achimota-Rastafarian issue, is a manifestation of the existing amorphous governance arrangement between GES and Public SHSs, especially mission schools, where schools are at liberty to develop their open rules.”

In an earlier development, th e Ghana Education Service (GES) had directed the authorities of Wesley Girls' High School in the Central Region and other Senior High Schools nationwide to allow Muslim students to partake in the Ramadan fast.

However, the Methodist Church Ghana kicked against the Ghana Education Service' (GES) directive and said in a statement that the church it took a “strong exception” to the directive stressing that it “cannot accede to the unilateral directive issued by the Ghana Education Service.”

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of Wesley Girls' High School jumped to the defence of the school, arguing that the parents of the students accepted the school's rules before enrolling their wards and, as such, the institution cannot be coerced into compromising its long-standing regulations on the basis of the students' religious preferences.

“The school should not be forced to compromise its rules and regulations to accommodate students' individual preferences which border on religion. This is unsustainable.”

---citinewsroom