It’s the aftermath of the annual
edition of the JoyFm’s old skul reunion which is also touted as the biggest
outdoor program in West Africa and I want to use this opportunity to pat the
back of JoyFm who is ostensibly the poster child of the multimedia group of
companies based in Accra, for instituting and achieving this feat and to also wade
into the national debate of the estranged relationship between Religion and
education.
I do not intend to bore you with
the history of Schools but once upon a time, Missionaries with all
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| The Main Gate of Presec boys that leads to a citadel of Knowledge |
intents and
purpose set foot on our land to evangelize the word of God but decided over
time to set up schools to educate the inhabitants of the land to facilitate
easy preaching and conversion, then came the government to take over from the
Churches, thus rendering them a pale shadows of themselves without a bearing.
Education, as one of the building
blocks of society has lately been in the news for all the wrong reasons such as
yearly examination malpractices, decline in discipline and excellence -
resulting in weaker institutions, inconsistent curricula, devaluing of our certificates
outside the shores of the land, unwilling and unqualified tutors due to
inadequacy and unattractiveness of the teaching profession and now a political
tool in the hands of the Politicians which often results in unbridled strike
actions, probably due to neglect from the very people it has helped nurtured into
positions of repute and also because the government has decided to micromanage
the schools including the very ones that were built by and through the toil of
Churches.
The government then intruded the
educational system as it were through regulation which eventually neutralized
and accorded every player in the educational terrain an equal status to
probably drive home the fact that we are all equal, before the Law and even
before God. Maybe, we should be thanking the Government for whipping us into
congruence. Nevertheless, I do not think we are all the same and wields equal
status like they try to impress upon us simply because I see and commune with
different sorts of people in my everyday walks of life and have seen enough to
still frolic in the idea of all of us being the same. However, whoever thinks that
we are all equal can revel in their delusion.
In every society, continuity is
of essence - to preserve their cultural orientations and beliefs, to at least give
them a false sense of permanence. This permanence or any effort at instilling it
is not hewed out of frivolity but often arrived at out of practical convictions
have become one of the very reasons why humans will procreate to continue their
race. I also believe it is in the same vein that religious entities instituted
schools to indoctrinate their very owns and other affiliates who find their
way to their doorsteps.
Muslims and Christians with
their varied sects such as the Catholics, the Wesleyans, The Presbyterians,
the Anglicans and even some latter day churches, through their mission schools have
produced a chunk of excellent individuals who have metamorphosed into giant
brands and sometimes, with a lot of followings. Then came in too much
liberation and the equality argument without recourse to the preambles and
purposes of why the mission schools were built in the first place
turned up a notch higher.
All persons, regardless of their
creed were allowed anywhere but should they not be compelled to abide by the
tenets of the accommodating institution?
Personally, Muslims and
traditionalists who have no school anyway can attend the mission schools
if they wish to be nurtured by the indoctrinating school of their choice
and vice versa, but such individuals must be compelled to go the full haul to
align to the spirit and letter of the Church or their schools thereof. And
rightfully so, to continue breeding legions of soldiers who are without a doubt
the future of the Church and an extension of its doctrines to ultimately fulfill
the purpose of establishing the Church.
But what do we see?
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| The St. Augustine's Administration block in its full glory |
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Pockets of infidels found their
ways into these mission schools and have over time become cystic and protected
by the law through their fundamental human rights that they can even haul a
whole institution to a battle of wits at the courts of Law. The mission schools
have now become pale shadows of themselves because discipline which invariably
is/was a key to breeding
near excellence is no more. Students are not
even caned any longer or where necessary it cannot exceed six.
Methinks, if the powers that be
do not have a problem with these churches or cannot impugn on their existence
and their indoctrination thereof, then these churches should be allowed
to build their own schools as an appendage to train students accordingly. These
Churches also have a need for permanence which requires them to spread their
tentacles and by extension, their dominance.
To think that religious and moral
education have been expunged from the curricula has only made the government’s
efforts at neutralizing and thwarting the objective of the mission schools too
blatant. Government should both build its own school and make it free education
or whatever political gains they stand to derive from their gimmick and leave
the religious schools to operate since their mother churches have been allowed
to fester. Better still, the government should leave the administration and its
bearing in the hands of the Churches and if need be, regulate it from the
fringes. We all know now what it means to say that government has taken over
schools as it is so evident in how educational standards have fallen to their
lowest ebb but the question is why and how does government take over all the
religious schools in the first place?
Thus far, it is even convenient
to say that it was imprudent of the government to take over these schools because
it doesn’t seem to be making meaningful strides. At most, education is even a
distraction on government’s plate, looking at how they are still toying with
what a senior high school curriculum should entail and look like? If a lot was
achieved through crude and not-so-smart ways of doing things in terms of
storing and availing data or textbooks in the past with the Churches in charge,
why can’t we mobilize, plan and execute our agendas in this day and age where schools
now take pride in websites?
Writer tweets @vilejah
