Mfantsipim School Emerge Winners of Project Citizen

Mfantsipim School emerged winners of this year's Central Region inter-schools Project Citizen Competition when it beat four other schools, Edinaman, Winneba School of Business, Aggrey Memorial Zion and Academy of Christ the King in the event held in Cape Coast on Wednesday.

By this feat, the School would be representing the Region at the national “Project Citizen-Ghana” competition later this year.

Project Citizen-Ghana, a portfolio based on public policy and implementation learning process for students at the Senio High Schools (SHS) level was introduced some eight years ago by the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE)

It is aimed at empowering the youth through participation in democratic governance and helping them to identify issues that were critical in their communities to help build quality citizenship among them through civic education clubs

Speaking at the ceremony, Madam Josephine Nkrumah, Deputy Chairperson of the NCCE charged Ghanaians especially the youth to make civic education more demand driven to ensure that proper democracy thrive in the country.

According to her, even though it was the sole responsibility of the Commission to educate the public on their civic rights and responsibilities, it was also imperative for the citizens to show interest in civic education to seek explanations rather than waiting on the NCCE to come to their doorsteps.

She noted that it was only through civic education that citizens, especially the youth could understand their roles in the country's political dispensation and be motivated to get involve to contribute to the development of the country.

Mrs Nkrumah indicated that there were still a lot of apathy towards issues of national interest because people did not ask for civic education and often relied on the NCCE which was not able to reach out to all due to financial constraints.

The NCCE would continue to carry on with its mandate of educating and sensitizing the public on issues of national interest within the limited scope of resources but needed the collaborative efforts of all, she noted.

Mrs. Nkrumah asserted that the project for the past years has made democracy practical to students at the SHS level and helped them to appreciate policy formulation and implementation and also boost their confidence in approaching societal issues.

She encouraged Ghanaians to actively get involved in the democratic governance of the country.

The project Coordinator, Madam Salome Asiedu Manteaw expressed satisfaction about the achievements of the project and admonished the participants to use the knowledge acquired to impact positively on their communities.

Some of the participants who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) expressed gratitude to the NCCE for the initiative and enumerated how the project has been beneficial to them and their colleagues.