‘Education must help students identify potential’
The Brong Ahafo Regional Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church, Reverend John Felix Yeboah, has stressed the need for the country to focus its educational system on the identification of the potential of students at an early stage.
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He said that called for a shift of the country’s educational system from the current one which emphasised students passing an examination, also known as the “chew, pour and pass system,” to a more pragmatic approach that emphasises on the development of skills and technical training to guide students to develop such gifts and potential to make them useful to society.
Rev. Yeboah, who was speaking at the inauguration of the Assemblies of God Educational Unit (AGEU) in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region, said it was the responsibility of the various religious bodies to take keen interest in both the spiritual and physical development of the child.
Functional training
He indicated that the AGEU had been established to provide access to holistic education to impact on the Ghanaian society through the provision of functional training based on Christian principles and gave an assurance that the unit would strive to inculcate good morals, knowledge and skills into every student studying under the church’s facility.
Held on the theme: “Holistic education: The bedrock for raising future generation for national development, the role of the church,” the launch brought together hundreds of students of the Assemblies of God educational institutions drawn from the 27 districts of the region.
The church had been involved in the training of the clergy since its inception in Ghana in 1931 and in 1977, it started some schools in the Northern Region which were modelled on unit schools under the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Currently, the church has 251 schools across the country with 25 basic schools in the region made up of four public schools. Eight are in the process of becoming public schools while 13 are private schools.
General Manager
For his part, the General Manager of the AGEU, Rev. Dr Daniel Ayambila, challenged Christian-based training schools and colleges in the country to continue to provide pastoral care and counseling services to students in their various schools, pledging that the unit would promote Christian principles and cultural values among students through relevant courses and practices that would enable them to positively contribute to the development of the country.
According to him, there was the need for the government and educational institutions to offer students variety of experiences and diverse opportunities to enable them to meet the current changing needs of the country.
Rev. Dr Ayambila announced that the church had put in place plans to establish a special school for the physically challenged, a technical and agricultural institution, a training schools for health providers and a college of education in the country.
The Sunyani Municipal Director of Education, Madam Theresa Kyere-Boakye mentioned teacher absenteeism and what she described as “the rising phenomenon of indiscipline in schools” as some of the challenges facing the GES and appealed to churches to support the government to ensure quality education in the country.
