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MUST READ: Just One More Point Of Separation | Ghana’s Current Religious Divide in Education Taking Focus Off What’s Most Important

Black woman in Hijab
Black woman in Hijab

It’s the issue that has been raging the most the past fortnight or so. It has raised fundamental questions about the freedom of association as enshrined in our constitution; and has caused so much furore the President addressed it in both his State of the Nation and Independence Day speeches to the nation.

I refer, of course, to the brouhaha surrounding the question of whether students of differing faiths in our educational institutions should be forced to partake in activities not of their faith.

It has become such a contentious issue, with claims and counter claims by adherents to both Christianity and Islam. The Christians are essentially saying ‘if you go to Rome, you do what Romans do’, the Muslims are saying this is a secular state and one should not be forced to adhere to the tenets of a religion they do not believe in. The argument rages on with neither side ready to budge an inch.

The root cause of all these, of course, is religion. Good old Christianity and Islam, just another point of division in a country chock full of them already.

Within the past fortnight Muslim organisations started raising complaints against the treatment meted out to Muslims in Christian schools. Apparently they were being forced to join Christian services despite the fact that they did not share in that faith.

The argument raised by the Christian leaders, including the Catholic Bishops Conference, is that the schools in question are mission schools. They were set up with an express purpose in mind, which is to train pupils not just academically but religiously as well.

The problem here is whilst that is true, those schools have since then been absorbed by the State under the Ghana Education Service. Whilst the mission schools’ entrenched position is no less illegal if they were solely in charge, it becomes even worse when you consider they are state institutions now; which should be able to cater to all segments of the population.

Still it is a point they are not ready to budge on, despite the glaring rights violation it entails. As far as they are concerned they are mission schools, so they recognise no other faith apart from theirs and try to give every student who enrols there their kind of training.

Of course the Muslims are not any better, and in raising this issue are indulging in a healthy dose of hypocrisy. At least the Christian schools allow the Muslims to worship, in a Muslim school it is their way or the highway, and students are often actively forced to take part in Muslim affairs that are obviously not part of their faith.

All this is doing is creating a division in our schools and taking the focus off what’s most important. Whilst we should be thinking of how to give the next generation the best education possible regardless of faith, we are bogged down in whether we should give them Christian education or Islamic education.

This is the kind of division religions excel in bringing about. Both sides are coming from the point of view of their faith, and that divergence leaves no room for compromises. And the battle is being fought at the top, between people who have devoted most of their lives to their faith, conservatives who have little time for the world view of others.

What both sides are forgetting is that we live in a country with laws, laws which are quite clear on the division between state and faith. Despite all our fancy claims to religion, particularly Christianity, Ghana as a state is a secular one; it’s enshrined in the constitution- the parent law to all other laws of the land.

This is why the news that an individual has taken the issue to the Supreme Court is a welcome one- they alone can interpret the law for us, and we can then move on in peace from this contentious issue.

This is all religion is good for in my opinion, dividing people along uncompromising lines. Tell me what purpose is served forcing a Muslim to mass, or a Christian to wear a hijab and pray five times a day. All that should matter is that this is a human being seeking an education; whether they pray to one white man’s god or the other should not matter…



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