The country's educational reforms need modernization - Mr Imoro

Sunyani, Jan. 4, GNA - Mr Yusif Imoro, Brong-Ahafo Regional Manager of the Islamic Education Unit, said at the weekend that the country's educational system should be modernized for the development of the youth. He noted that education over the years had been rather unstable and a bit confusing in terms of dealing with the syllabus and other academic activities.

"The educational system should pay attention to making the individual mentally, psychologically and physically strong in order not to render products of formal education jobless and susceptible to crime," he stated= .. Mr Imoro made this observation at the 53rd National Annual Conference of the Ghana Muslim Mission in Sunyani, on the theme 93Eradicating Immoral= ity through Proper Education: The Islamic Perspective". He said education was not only about teaching and learning in the classroom but also included the experiences and interactions a person went through in life that would help to shape him or her to become acceptable in society. Mr Imoro stated that in spite of government's socio-economic interventions, many Muslim children were out of school and engaged in various immoral acts, because most parents did not put premium on the education of their children.

He noted that the absence of role models in the society had become the main cause of immorality, since most children had no particular individual to look up to or imitate in order to be successful in life.

Mr Imoro said in order to be able to eradicate immorality in the educational institutions, children should be taught right from the home about their Creator as early as the child began to learn how to speak befor= e going to school. He urged parents to pay attention to the education of their children, emphasising that the misconception about Muslim children departing from Islam if they were sent to school was no longer tenable. Mr Musah Nuamah, National Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Muslim Mission, said the theme for the conference was in line with the Mission's avowed aim of pursuing education for all children and adults. He said the Mission had succeeded in establishing about 75 schools comprising all levels, excluding the tertiary level, and that plans were fa= r advanced for the building of an Islamic University in Kumasi. Mr Nuamah appealed to organizations and individuals to assist the Mission in its efforts to achieve its aims. It also called on other religious institutions to accord Muslim childre= n in those institutions their civic rights.

Mr Akwesi Oppong Ababio, Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, said education was the building block for the development of every child and should, therefore, be given the requisite priority. He urged parents to be very particular about their children's educat= ion and to train them to be respectful and law abiding in order to contribute national development.