Govt. Handing Over Mission Schools: See You In Court, Minority Warns

Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak has warned the Akufo-Addo government to drop its plans of handing over mission schools in the country back to the churches or face legal action.

Mr. Mubarak made this declaration in reaction to the president’s promise of giving the mission schools back to the churches while speaking at the graduation ceremony of Trinity College in Accra Saturday.

The president believes the takeover of the schools by the churches will give them more control to arrest declining moral standards in schools.

As part of their operations during the colonial era, the churches established these schools to better their socialization with the people.

But a 1984 take-over of their schools, placed their administration and management under government control.

Earlier this year the Catholic Bishops Conference called on the government to cede control of mission schools to the church to address the deteriorating state of discipline and values in these schools.

But the Minority Chief Whip believes handing the 575 out of a total of some 872-second cycle schools will be in contravention with the laws of Ghana and inimical to the interest of the common man and therefore, warned that he will drag the government to court should this materialize.

Mr. Mubarak told Joy News: “There may be constitutional issues that some of us will test at the Supreme Court because you cannot hand over national assets to one group”, he said.

Besides that, Mr. Mubarak believes handing over the schools back to the missions will lead to indoctrination and radicalization of the students.

He also dismissed the statement by President Akufo-Addo that the churches do not have enough control of the schools claiming that, “in such schools, you’ll have to be one of them to be headmaster”.