The Executive Director for the Africa Education Watch, Mr. Kofi Asare has called for standardized set of rules and regulations to be put in place for all public schools across the country.
Commenting on the directive by the Human Rights court for Achimota School to admit the Rastafarian students, he indicated that setting the regulations will end the impasse between the schools, parents and religious groups.
Mr. Asare also averred that,;there could be series of court cases similar to the Rastafarians issue if rules are not laid down immediately.
“If the GES and the Ministry continue with the approach;where they are developing an MOU just for mission schools, then next time it won’t be mission schools. It will be for the regular school.”
Kofi Asare
Despite the fact that the directive by the court has been lauded by stakeholders and the general public, Mr. Asare was of the view that until a uniformed code of regulations is put in place,;people will still go to court to pursue their rights on similar issues.
Being the mother body of the various public educational institutions in the country,;the Ghana Education Service which stakeholders called upon to mediate the issue; was also asked to review its regulations amongst other things.
Policies to be reviewed
In this regard, the Ghana Education Service has disclosed that;the ruling of the high court asking Achimota Senior High School to admit Rastafarian students will help the service in reviewing its policies.
Dr. Kwabena Tandoh,;the Deputy Director-General of the GES said the service was looking at reviewing their policies prior to the issue with the Rastafarians.
“For GES even before the Rastafarian case was brought against Achimota School,;we’ve had conversation around looking wholly at our school policies. We still have a policy against technology in terms of devices by young men and women in our schools.
“And so, this only justifies or second and affirms where we are already thinking about in terms of relooking at our policies;and I think that the case will allow us to be wide in our review process in terms of our policies, while understanding what we need to maintain in terms of our traditions, culture and our beliefs within the confines of our constitution.”
Dr. Tandoh
Dr. Tandoh on WiFi provision
Dr. Tandoh also revealed that policies by the GES on use of devices in schools will also be reviewed;as government provides Wi-Fi across government schools.
“And we have seriously been talking about them. We need to review them,;because we now have Wi-Fi so, it will be fair to have Wi-Fi enabling devices to help students to learn. So, before this case we have been having serious conversation around full policy review on how our schools run and operate;and how we intend to use those policies to support the ethos of schools that we run.”
Dr. Tandoh
Yesterday, May 31, 2021, the Human Rights Court directed Achimota Senior High School to admit the two Rastafarian students after weeks of banter between the school and the parents.
