The National Catholic Secretariat, Ghana, is holding its second National Catholic Education forum to discuss the vital roles of Catholic education in fostering resilience and inclusivity in Ghana.
The weeklong forum (March 10 -15, 2025) is ongoing in Koforidua in the Eastern Region and the attendees are policymakers, educators, and stakeholders.
The forum is under the theme: ” Catholic education for integral development: Shaping a resilient and an inclusive Ghana.”
Most Rev Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum, Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Koforidua, said the education forum will review the recognition of roles by the Local Managers in Basic schools as well as making the system more beneficial to culture whiles meeting international standards.
The forum will look at the financial deficit in the management and administration of schools, abolition of Computer School Placement System and allow parents the right to choose SHS for their children.
Another area is decentralization to allow the channels of operations and administration to work under the districts, Municipal and metropolitan directives instead of direct functions from the Office of the Director General of Ghana Education Service.
Furthermore, the forum should also consider religious and moral education training in all their institutions, and 20 per cent of Catholic students into the founding mission schools every academic year.
He said, ” it is my ardent hope that this presentations and deliberations on the aforementioned areas would provide solutions to challenges affecting the education sector.”
Professor Ernest Kofi Davis, Director General of the Ghana Education Service, represented the Minister of Education, at the forum and said education was the only avenue through which learners are prepared to meet an international human resource standard to support the aspirations of countries all over the world.
He commended the National Catholic Secretariat for organizing the grand meeting to identify and address challenges, facilitate knowledge exchange, and promote ethics and sustainability.
He entreated the eductors to explore how discipline can be instilled in students without using any of the traditional approaches such as canning.
Professor Davis, called on the Catholic mission to give opportunity to students with different religious background to practice their faith while they followed rules and regulations of the school.
He also stressed on religious tolerance in our schools through a holistic education approach for academic excellence.
In his speech, Dr Charles Abugri, Managing Director of the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Partnership in Action (TEPPIA), recommended that the government must upgrade the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) by incorporating new technologies of robotics, e-mobility, and green energies into TVET institutions and Technical Universities.
Furthermore, he said the Mission and Religious Congregation Leaders must put emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education through innovation driven competition in schools.
There should be a collaboration of church leaders with the government to introduce technical education into the Catholic University and strengthen the Appiah Menkah college and St. John Bosco training college in Navrongo to produce effective teachers for technical and vocational schools.
He said the Catholic Education Managers must find ways to link TVET with industry and engage the trainers and trainees in intensive training programmes.
GNA