Schools can’t accommodate full religious freedom overnight – Aheto-Tsegah

A former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Charles Aheto-Tsegah, has cautioned that fully accommodating religious freedom in schools will be difficult, given the long-established structures and tightly programmed routines that guide school operations.

His comments come in the wake of a Supreme Court directive ordering Wesley Girls’ Senior High School to respond to a lawsuit filed by private legal practitioner Shafic Osman. The suit alleges that the school restricts Muslim students from practising aspects of their faith, a development that has revived national debate on how educational institutions handle religious diversity.

Speaking in an interview, November 29, Dr. Aheto-Tsegah stressed that the rigid scheduling and strict coordination of school activities leave little space for major adjustments.

“When it comes to the concept of freedom to practice your religion, it is a very difficult concept in education because the school is a system. It is programmed. We manage every second in schools. When you structure the school system, you have a time when students should be at a particular place at a particular time.

“So, it then becomes some very interesting reconfiguration to slot in what we are discussing here as freedom of religion.”

He noted that mission schools, in particular, face unique constraints, as many of their structures and cultures predate government partnerships. For such institutions, he said, altering established norms to address evolving religious concerns requires careful thought and gradual adjustment.

“In mission schools they are established by mission. They are in partnership with government for various reasons so it becomes very difficult for them to suddenly adjust to a shake up that will allow them to incorporate all of the emerging issues of religion that are coming in our modern-day parlance. A lot of patience and time is required to deal with this,” he stated.

Dr. Aheto-Tsegah added that any reforms aimed at integrating broader religious freedoms must be introduced deliberately and with sensitivity, cautioning that abrupt changes could disrupt the balance and structure that schools depend on to function effectively.