The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has instituted an annual Integrity School Programme to promote integrity and anti-corruption behaviour among the youth as part of its 20th Anniversary celebrations.
The maiden edition, which was launched in Accra brought together about 70 students below the age of 35 from second cycle and tertiary institutions across the nation.
Deputy Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr. Richard Quayson, said corruption, indiscipline and lawlessness are not accidental but rather by-products of the sum total of our thoughts, attitudes, mindset, upbringing, education and actions.
He said the purpose of education and learning is not merely the acquisition of knowledge but more importantly imparting into the conscience of the society core values that equally and proportionately integrate the various component of humanity.
He said Basic Education harnesses the foundational constructs of the intellectual, psychological, emotional, social and physical development of the nation’s human capital.
“It is therefore the most important domain next to the family system to inculcate and nurture lifelong values during early brain and character development,” he said.
He said this placed a great responsibility on providers of Basic Education to ensure that the nation’s human resource was well equipped with high moral standards and lifetime ethics of social engagement, which translates into great benefits to the nation.
He said there was, therefore, an urgent need to place character building at the centre of the educational curriculum, adding that the development of the character of every child from the basic level was essential and had the ability to impact the nation over time.
He said central to character building should be cultivation of Integrity as the bedrock of education and human relations; without which was impossible to attain any meaningful level of sustainable development.
Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director, GII said the opportunity would be opened for interested students to apply and it would also be extended to the members of Tertiary Civic Clubs.
She said the initiative formed part of GII’s activities of integrity, mobilization, participation, accountability, anti-corruption and transparency (IMPACT) Ghana Project with funding support from Global Affairs Canada through Transparency International and DANIDA.
She said the integrity school would take the form of an interactive learning and sharing model and would be a combination of lectures, role plays, debates, panel discussions, monitoring and coaching.
Participants were taken through topics relating to corruption, ethics and integrity to equip them come against such practices.