Allocate more time to study civic rights
The Chairman for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ms Josephine Nkrumah, has called for more time to be allocated to the study of civics at the basic and senior high school levels.
She explained that although the study of Citizenship Education is included in the Social Studies course, the study time was not enough for the children to fully understand their rights, duties and responsibilities as citizens.
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Ms Nkrumah, who said that in an interview with the Junior Graphic, pointed out that children in their formative years adapted easily and this moulded their civic character.
She said constant learning of civics would instil in them good values and would always remind them of their responsibilities as good citizens of Ghana.
“Children learn fast and whatever you instil in them, is what they will grow with it. So consistently learning about their civic responsibilities, will definitely shape and mould them into good and respectable individuals of society,” she emphasised.
She said the rights and responsibilities of a citizen were necessary for every individual because he or she would acquire certain key values that would help him or her in life.
Civic values, according to her, include love for country, self-reliance, tolerance, integrity, honesty, among others, and they were necessary to guide the children to become responsible citizens in future.
Ms Nkrumah said it also fell on every adult Ghanaian to show in his or her actions and attitudes their civic responsibility as children learn by example.
“We cannot say one thing and, by our actions, proclaim the opposites. We owe it to the youth to be good citizens of Ghana not just with our words, but through our actions and attitudes,” she explained.
Ms Nkrumah said good citizens wear their face masks properly at all times when out in public, sanitise their hands regularly, safeguard the environment and live peacefully with others; ‘‘So, if we cannot do such simple things as required of responsible citizens, then we have no right to teach others.’’
