Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has threatened to haul government to the Supreme Court if it proceeds to hand over mission schools in the country to their founding churches.
President Nana Akufo-Addo over the weekend reiterated his government’s intention to give churches more control in the management of mission schools.
President Akufo-Addo speaking at the graduation ceremony of Trinity College in Accra on Saturday, said he is confident the move to give the churches more control, will improve discipline among students.
“The traditions of discipline, hard-work and integrity that characterize the churches are needed in the country. That is why my government is keen on restoring more control to churches over the missionary schools. I’m glad that many religious groups now seem to want to concentrate on the tertiary sector in the provision of education. The exponential growth in the number of tertiary institutions in the last few years, certainly shows that has been the most popular decision by the churches and others that have gone into the sector,” the President stated.
But Hon. Muntaka argued that handing over the schools to the missions will be illegal and warned it could encourage religious radicalization of students.
“Is he talking about handing over national assets to some groups? he should say that so that some of us to be clear because if he says control, I think they have control. Go round the mission school, the Islamic School, T.I Am you need to be one of them to be headmaster. Because, look we have a little over 800 SHSs in Ghana, 575 of them as of the missions. I believe there may be even constitutional issues that many of us will be interested in testing this at the Supreme Court because you just can’t sit and say you’re handing over national asset to one group.”
