Church urged to support government to improve education

Mr Solomon Boah, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister has appealed to the Catholic Church to support the government to improve on basic and secondary education in the country.

He said there was the need for the Catholic Education Unit to adopt policies that could support the government to improve on delivering quality education in the basic and the secondary levels.

Mr Boah made the appeal on Tuesday during the 42nd conference of managers of Catholic educational unit (COMCEU) held in Tamale.

The event, which was on the theme: "Catholic Education: Enhancing the potentials of students/ pupils", was to bring together managers from the various dioceses to discuss the effective and strengthening of the Catholic education by providing professional training.

He said, “there is the need for the Catholic church to provide teaching and learning materials to support those in government schools for the moral upbringing of children in the society.”

He said the Catholic Church should also pay attention to Girl-Child education especially those in the rural areas to reduce early marriages.

He said Government had fully absorbed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) registration fees for all public Junior High School students and subsidised that of private students as well and the capitation grant had also been increased by 100 percent for every child

Reverend John Bonaventure Kofie, Episcopal Bishop of the Catholic Church said the Catholic Educational Unit was committed to partner the state to reform the educational structure to move from merely passing examinations to empowering the students to become future leaders.

He said the managers of the Catholic Institutions should educate the children on environmental issues in their schools to promote cleanliness in the country and authorities of the school should also ensure that teachers performed their duties to encourage the students to attend school on regular basis.

Most Reverend Kofie called on parents and teachers to play a critical role to recognise and enhance the potentials of the students.

Alhaji Mohammed Haroon Cambodia, the Northern Regional Director of Education, urged the Catholic managers to strengthen the monitoring and supervision of the Catholic Educational Units to inculcate in them good moral values into the lives of the students.

He commended the Catholic Educational Unit for instilling discipline into the Catholic schools, which shaped their behaviours positively in the society.

Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye, the Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) called on all stakeholders in the education sector to join hands to promote moral values that the Catholic Church stood for to reflect in the children’s' daily lives in the society.