"We Were Chased Out, Now You Want Us To Fix Indiscipline" - Catholic Bishops President Slams Education Minister

The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has described as "disheartening" the approach of the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, to tackling rising indiscipline in schools.

Speaking in an interview, Bishop Gyamfi questioned why the Minister would convene a stakeholder meeting to find out why indiscipline is rising, when the answer, in his view, is obvious.

"Recently the Minister of Education because of the rise of indiscipline in the schools called a meeting of all stakeholders, he called the churches also to be there for us to find out why there is indiscipline in the schools and to say the least I found that very disheartening," he said.

He argued that the churches, who were at the forefront of promoting human formation and values in schools, had been sidelined.

"That the whole Minister will not know why there is rising indiscipline in the schools and to invite the very people they have chased out who were doing these things to come and discuss why [there is indiscipline]," Bishop Gyamfi added.

According to him, indiscipline persists because schools have focused only on academic excellence without teaching values.

"There is indiscipline in schools because nobody is promoting human formation," the Joy News lower-third quoted him as saying.

"If they know it and they want to instill discipline and uproot indiscipline to promote human formation... they do not come by accident, they come by teaching the children. You must have people to teach them these values in addition to academic excellence, but if you don't teach them and you just leave it like that then you are wondering why there is indiscipline," he said.

Bishop Gyamfi concluded that the stakeholder meeting should not have been called at all.

"I think that was a meeting you should not have called at all because the answer is obvious," he said.