Mr. Joseph Bagbin, Headmaster of the St. Mary’s Boys Senior High at Apowa in the Western Region has called on the managers of the various religious schools to appoint qualified individuals to head the schools.

He said when appointments were made on religious assessment of the individual and not based on the requisite qualification, it made running of the schools very difficult as staff were not willing to take instructions.

Mr. Bagbin said this at a day’s workshop organised by the National Catholic Secretariat in collaboration with STAR Ghana, an NGO, for teachers and educational workers of the various Mission schools in Takoradi.

The Workshop under the theme: “State and Church Partnership towards enhancing Education Service Delivery and Governance” was chosen to create awareness on the need for effective cooperation, communication, collaboration and consultation between the state and the churches in promoting quality education in the country.

Ms Rosemond Austin, Regional Manager of the Catholic Educational Unit-Western Region, said presently under the decentralization policy, the role of the educational unit has not been clearly specified.

She said the religious education unit’s position on the organogram was conspicuously missing, adding, the church had been sidelined in the decentralization process and other pressing issues had necessitated a nationwide brainstorming exercise to push ahead the grievances of the religious schools to government for redress and effective education delivery.

The Most Reverend Mathias Nketsiah, Archbishop of Cape Coast, said education continues to form the basis for the development of human capital, which is the most valuable asset of every nation.

He said the church’s involvement in education was intended to partner the government to effectively satisfy this human need adding that through education, the common good of society was promoted.

The Most Rev. Nketsiah said the church was involved in education for evangelism, promotion of sound human development through Christian principles, provide moral and religious training for the youth, provide options to parents and also supplement government’s effort.**