Catholic Bishops Conference launches publication on best practices in education
The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCBC) has called on the state to involve the church in the delivery of education to help improve quality and ensure effectiveness.
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The Episcopal Chairman with responsibility for Education for the GCBC, the Most Rev Matthew K. Gyamfi, who made the call, said when the state and the church worked closely in the educational sector, “we can actually continue to produce quality work, which will enhance education delivery in the country.”
He said the Catholic Church believed that it had a lot to offer.
“We have a rich store of experience in education delivery and all we are looking for is to be given the opportunity to add to what the state has, so that we don’t re-invent the wheel,” he said.
The compendium
The Most Rev Gyamfi, who is also the Bishop of the Sunyani Diocese, was speaking at the launch of “A compendium of some best practices in education: Education managers’ peer learning experiences” at the Christ the King Parish Hall in Accra yesterday.
The document, which was produced by the Department of Human Development at the National Catholic Secretariat, gives opportunity to managers of education to share experiences in best practices and models that have worked in enhancing quality education in school.
The Most Rev Gyamfi said to ensure that the compendium worked, the state should involve the church in the delivery of education.
Church involvement
“It is in this regard that we believe that if the office of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) were to involve our regional and local managers, as well as our church presidents and the community, educational delivery would be very effective and we all stand to benefit,” he said.
He said if the state should involve the church in educational delivery, most of the supervision work would be done free of charge and the church would be committed to invest its money in the provision of teaching aid, among other educational needs.
The Most Rev Gyamfi said the church did not start its schools to give them out as gifts to the state, saying that it wanted to have a stake in their management.
He stressed that the churches should be allowed to bring in some of the elements for which they set up the schools to add to what the state had in order to bring about holistic formation.
The Bishop said should the churches be involved in the management of the pre-school, primary and junior high schools, quick, effective and positive results would be achieved.
Benefits of the document
The Executive Secretary of the Department of Human Development of the National Catholic Secretariat, Mr Samuel Zan Akologo, who welcomed the participants, said the document promised to introduce an innovation for the promotion of quality education outcomes in the country through the participatory and inclusive process of all stakeholders.
The Director of the Curriculum Research and Development Division of the GES, Mrs Cynthia Bosumtwi, commended the church for developing the document.