Citizenship Week underway in schools in Ghana

Once again, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is organizing this year’s annual “citizenship week” for basic school pupils throughout the country. The program is being held under the theme: “a disciplined Ghana: my responsibility” as part of the constitution week meant to instill in the pupils the basic rules of discipline at home, school and the nation as a whole. The program will begin on Tuesday May 26; and end on Tuesday June 2.
According to an official statement from the NCCE, some notable figures in responsible positions in the country have been invited to interact and impart to the pupils the virtues of good citizenship in 6,000 basic schools across the country. The citizenship week began in 2012 by the NCCE in 2,000 schools. The number of schools involved in the program has been increasing every year giving rise to the number of pupils being sensitized on civic education and on their rights and responsibilities. A study has shown that the citizenship education has benefited many school pupils leading to improvement in their knowledge of civic education as shown in their attitudes generally. While commending The NCCE for instituting this program, we wish to encourage many notable figures to avail themselves of the opportunity to take part in the program by sharing with pupils their experiences as they were growing up. This way the pupils would also follow the path of discipline and obedience at home and schools and to take part in voluntary duties at all times. This would in turn encourage them to be good citizens and not nation wreckers such as land guards, armed robbers, drug addicts and sakawa boys and girls
As part of the education programs of NCCE it has been organizing dialogue sessions for civil society groups and political parties each year since 2014 followed by two more in the succeeding years. The dialogue sessions were addressed by notable figures like Mr. Justice VCRAC Crabbe and Prof Mike Ocquaye Former Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament who helped in sensitizing people on the election petition in 2013 and on issues regarding relations between parliament and the executive arm of government and the way forward. Participants in the dialogue sessions left the venue of the programs at the Kofi Annan Center on ICT near the State House satisfied with the lessons they learnt.
So far the NCCE has chalked remarkable feats in its duty of educating people high and low in our schools, army and police barracks, the civil service, churches, mosques and our neighborhoods. While commending the leadership and workers of NCCE for the grounds covered by them in carrying out their mandate under the constitution so far , the organization and its workers deserve increase in financial support from government and donors to be able widen their scope of activities to cover more schools , communities , religious and traditional authorities. This way, many people young and old would get educated on the constitution and to know their rights and responsibilities to be able to contribute their quota towards orderly development of the nation.