The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana , Rev. Dr Cyril Fayorsey has called on government to use its existing partnerships with religious bodies to help maintain discipline in schools in the country particularly in the Senior High School category .
The call comes on the back of rising cases of indiscipline in a number of SHSs in the country with regards to violent behaviours by students that has led to multiple injuries in the past months .
Speaking in an Exclusive interview with Radio Univers on the sidelines of the National Education Forum engagement with religious bodies on February 26 , 2025, Rev. Fayorsey called for a more concerted effort by managers of the country’s educational system to take steps to involve religious bodies in the day to day management of public schools , to get more rigorous training of body ,soul and mind of students for a holistic education across board .
” Governments overtime must learn to see religious bodies and groupings who are mostly the founders of such public secondary schools more as equal partners in shaping and training the next generation of leaders in their formative ages .
The involvement of both Christian and Islamic ecumenical bodies in the active management of students goes a long way to enhance effective teaching and learning in a manner where discipline and uprightness are the cardinal hallmarks of the educational landscape “.
Also, Rev. Dr Cyril Fayorsey called for the reinstatement of some forms of corporal punishment in the schools to serve as an additional check on recalcitrant characters that may exist in schools to challenge established authority.
Such punishment forms like grounds work , kneeling and clean up exercises for stated misbehaviour go a long way to create a zero tolerance regime for continuous disregard of school rules and regulations .
” In the not too distant past ,school heads and management officials had the laxity to use controlled means of punishment like weeding , kneeling as well as general grounds work as an effective means to check deviant behaviours in schools and had optimum results .
In general , we as religious bodies believe that the decision by the Ghana Education Service and allied agencies to remove such measures from schools has largely contributed to recurring acts of insubordination and disorder in schools and as such call on the relevant authorities to have , a relook at the decision and it’s negative effects it has put on the ability of school heads to keep all students moving in an organized manner”.
He further called on the various religious groupings in the country to take up practical and relevant preaching and training exercises in their various denominations and sects to develop worthy and credible characters deserving of contributing meaningfully not only during their schooling days but in the future when they are handed the reins of organizing society .
In the past few months , there have been disturbing issues of teenagers largely in the various Senior High Schools dotted across the country engaging in deviant behaviours like fighting with offensive implements which has led to injuries and destruction of school properties anytime they are aggrieved , which has made life uncomfortable for school heads , security personnel and the general public .
