Mission schools need self-governance - Dr Lawrence Honny

Bothered by the falling standards of education and growing indiscipline among students in the country, old students of St Augustine's College in Cape Coast, have appealed to government to return all missionary schools to their rightful owners.

That, it said was the way to effectively control admissions, and institute culturally and religiously appropriate internal administrative governance structures and procedures, to instill discipline among students.

Dr Lawrence Honny, a former lecturer of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), and an old student, made the appeal at the College's 90th anniversary celebration in Cape Coast on Saturday.

Held on the theme: "Advancing Senior High School education, mission schools at the crossroads, which way, St Augustine's College," Dr Honny said they were deeply worried about the admission processes into the school and called for a relook in tandem with the core vision and mission of the College.

He said: "We consider the current system of admission to be highly questionable if not totally objectionable. Mission schools should be given the right to conduct their own admissions because the religious character formation of the school must not be compromised and can only logically be managed by the heads of the schools".

"I am the first to admit that as far as I can remember, in appointments of the heads of the College, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has always respected the Church’s preference, hence we can still ask if the future will be any brighter for mission schools over their own schools," he said.

Dr Honny pointed out that the education at the College was about developing the intellect, behaviour and morality of students from the Catholic perspective and it must not be exchanged with an education that was valueless.

He commended the government for its boldness in implementing free education describing it as a golden passport for young intelligent children who would have missed the opportunity to have been educated due to poverty.

According to him, giving every child an equal chance of going to secondary school was no mean achievement and called on the government to urgently reconsider the viable and reliable funding modules to sustain it.

Dr Honny also praised the school for going all out to win this year’s National Science and Mathematics Quiz (NSMQ) Competition after battling dozens of competitors - exhibiting knowledge and captivating performance as well as proper sportsmanship.

Professor Eugene Kuffour Marfo, Dean of Students at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) who chaired the event reiterated the call for missionary schools to be returned to their rightful owners.

He charged the old students of the College occupying various high positions to lobby and use their powers to persuade government to return missionary schools to the missions.