The Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, Most. Rev. Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, has called for more emphasis to be placed on religious and moral education.
He said the lack of it has left “a very big vacuum” in Ghana’s development.
Speaking at a forum on Ghana Beyond Aid, the respected clergy analysed the process of education and character formation in Ghana.
The Archbishop described Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education as the hardware of development and the humanities and liberal arts as the software.
But while there has been “an appreciable emphasis” on STEM, the inculcation of values has been taken for granted in schools.
“Unfortunately, there is not a concomitant or adequate emphasis on values and values formation,” he assessed and pointed out the importance of honesty, hard work, volunteerism and self-reliance.
He cited Bob Marley’s song ‘Redemption Song’ as offering useful lessons on the need for inculcation of values in education if Ghana is to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
Palmer-Buckle quoted the famous lyrics from the song ‘emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
A “paradigm shift” is need in the attitudes of Ghanaians, he said and charged stakeholders in the educational system to fashion out a “systematic” and “sustained” approach in changing negative and retrogressive mindset.
“I call on the Ghana Education Service, the National Commission for Civic Education, faith-based organisations and civil society organisations to be tasked to work out very pertinent syllabus and curricula on those fundamental values outlined here and how they can be inculcated into every Ghanaian,” he said.
History of Religious and Moral Education in Ghana
- In the 1970’s, Moral Education was taught in Ghanaian basic schools under the designation, Civics. There was a textbook entitled “Civics for Self-Government” that was used for the implementation of this programme.
- In the 1980’s, under the military regime of President Jerry John Rawlings and his Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) government, Moral Education continued to be taught in Ghanaian basic schools, using the teaching of Religion. At this time, Religion was integrated into a new subject known as Cultural Studies. It was an integration of three subjects, namely: Religion, Culture and Music.
- In the 1994, Cultural Studies was removed from the basic school curriculum.
- Concerns were raised by the public following the removal of Religion from the school curriculum. This caused a National Education Reform Review Committee (NERRC) to be set up in 1994. Based on its recommendations, Religion was reintroduced, under the title Religious & Moral Education (RME) and a syllabus was developed by the Ministry of Education in 1998 for the teaching of the subject.
- In 2002, a committee was set up by President J. A. Kuffour to review the educational system in Ghana. It was headed by Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, who was then the Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba. The Committee proposed that fewer subjects should be taught at the Basic School level and recommended that: “At the lower level, reading, writing, dictation and comprehension texts should incorporate concepts of Religious and Moral Education, Culture, Science, Hygiene, Agricultural Science, Life Skills and Civics and should be taught in an integrated manner”
- Consequently, Religious and Moral Education was removed from the Basic School curriculum in 2007. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ghana described the integration of Religion into other subjects as making Religion “an appendix” to those subjects (Gurney, 2007).
- In response to these public agitations, President Kuffour used his 2008 May Day Anniversary Speech to instruct authorities of the Ghana Education Service to re-introduce Religious and Moral Education as a subject on its own from the 2008/2009 academic year. The subject therefore continued to be used in teaching Moral Education in Ghanaian basic schools. Besides, Citizenship Education was introduced at the Lower Primary Level (i.e. Basic 4, 5 & 6) to teach Moral Education.
—Moral Education and the Curriculum: the Ghanaian Experience
Seth Asare-Danso (PhD)
I get the impression that the report was not conclusive and would kindly like to know the way forward. Many many thanks though for how far we have come!