The leadership of the Methodist Church Ghana says it disagrees with the Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to Wesley Girls High School to allow a Muslim student to fast while in school.
“The Methodist Church Ghana takes strong exception to the directive,” the Church said in a press statement signed by the Right Reverend Michael Bossman, the Administrative Bishop, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.
It explained that the Church, in an emergency meeting chaired by its Presiding Bishop, Most Rev. Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, concluded that it could not accede to the unilateral directive issued by the GES and, therefore, “insists that the GES respects the long-standing partnership between the Government and Mission Schools.”
The statement was in reaction to a recent Press Release on May 1, 2021, issued by Ms Cassandra Twum Ampofo, the Head of Public Relations, GES, concerning a student of the Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, who was reported to have been restrained by the School’s authorities from taking part in the annual fasting as a Muslim.
The GES, had in the release, directed authorities of Wesley Girls High School to, among other things, “allow any such student who wishes to fast for any religious reason to do so.”
It said parents of any such student were also directed to write to the School indicating that the school should not be held liable for any health condition of the student as a result of the fast. The Methodist Church said the School’s rule of preventing students to fast while in school was a long standing one, which was also non-religious as various renowned Muslim ladies in Ghana had passed through the school adhering to such a rule.
“The policies of the School, over the 186 years of its existence, have resulted in Wesley Girls High School being the school of choice, excellence and achievement,” it said.
“And the Church remains in full support of these policies.”
GNA