Allow parents to choose schools for their children - Bishop Bemile

Jirapa, Nov. 17, GNA - The Most Rev. Paul Bemile, Catholic Bishop of Wa, has called on the government to allow parents to choose the schools they want for their children. He said the computer selection of schools for children as it is today in Ghana, was an infringement on the right of the parents to educate their children where they choose.

Bishop Bemile made the call in a speech read on his behalf during at the 50th anniversary celebration of the St. Francis of Assisi Senior High School in Jirapa in the Upper West Region.

He said there are many more elements to consider in the choice of a school than the academic performance of the student.

"Furthermore, parents may have their legitimate reasons for preferring one school or the other for their wards. Some of these include one's religious persuasion, the health of the ward, and proximity to the home and so on," Bishop Bemile explained.

He said with the computer selection, these personal considerations are sacrificed for the impersonal computer, which is itself open to the manipulation of those who can exert their influence on the persons operating the system.

"The present situation goes against distributive justice as wards of our rural folk and the poor are condemned to the less endowed schools, from where they compete with their more fortunate counterparts from a disadvantaged position," he said.

Bishop Bemile noted that if more resources were devoted to equipping the less endowed schools, it would lessen the pressure currently put on the few well-equipped schools.

"It will also help bridge the yawning gap that is growing between the rich and the poor in terms of the opportunities they have for educating their wards.

"Secondly, in a relationship between two groups where one is subjugated to the other, we cannot sincerely talk of partnership or dialogue," he said.

Bishop Bemile observed that in the educational sector, educational units were not given the right to manage and supervise educational institutions they had established and developed in partnership with government.

He said regional managers had become mere figure heads in terms of authority, as they were ranked lower than the district directors of education.

"As such, the former cannot even post newly trained teachers, but have to prepare the posting schedules for the latter to act upon. This situation does not augur well for a meaningful partnership," he pointed out.

Bishop Bemile said true education was the imparting of values that enabled students to fulfill themselves as well as live with others in their quest for meaning in their lives.

"Such an education cannot take place unless we give priority to the spiritual and inculcate in our students the place of the spiritual in their personal lives," he said.

The Catholic Bishop said it was for that reason that the teaching of religious and moral education was so essential in the educational curriculum. "If we, as a nation, decry the violence, corruption and general decadence that bedevil our society, we will have to take a more serious look at the place we give to religion and morals in our educational system," he said.

The Bishop noted that the plight of the girl-child still remains a burning issue, observing the migration of young girls from the north to the south in search of non-existence jobs.

He commended government for establishing Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) which intended to look into, and address the under-development of the north.