Human factor indispensable for Ghana Beyond Aid – Palmer Buckle

The Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, has stated that for the country to achieve its goal of being a self-sufficient country, citizens of the country should be empowered by changing their values, mindset and attitude to life.

He made the statement at the Ministry of Information earlier today June 11, 2020, at a virtual forum on the theme: ‘COVID-19 and our march towards Ghana Beyond Aid: Turning adversity into opportunity’.

“Let us put the Ghanaian right and Ghana will be right. We need a paradigm shift from our present mindset, our attitudes, and our behaviours. The human factor is indispensable in the quest for Ghana beyond aid,” he said.

He added that the country’s educational curriculum focuses mainly on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and in the process, humanities courses are being relegated to the background, though they play a major role in positively shaping citizens of a country.

“When we look at the education curriculum, there’s an appreciable emphasis on the Science, on Technology, on Engineering, and on Mathematics. Unfortunately, there is not a concomitant or adequate emphasis on values and value formation. I think it is because we take it for granted. As we emphasize the STEM, we should also emphasize the humanities. The stem leads us to form the hardware to development, and the software for development is the humanities,” he stressed.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle advised that courses that will improve the mindset, attitude and value of citizens in the country should be entrenched in our educational curriculums.

“Civil society organizations should be tasked to work out the pertinent syllabus to inculcate the values into Ghanaians. I would like us to involve the universities, the secondary schools in what I call Religious and Moral formation,” he concluded.

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