The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev. Emmanuel Fianu, says restoring full management powers to mission owners in faith-based schools will strengthen discipline, character formation and overall educational quality.
Speaking on Hot Issues on Sunday, November 30, 2025, he argued that the current arrangement, in which the Ghana Education Service (GES) independently appoints teachers and heads, sidelines the groups that established these schools.
“Management of the schools by the missions will be a plus. Because, then owners of the school will also be involved more than it is now in what is happening in the schools,” he said.
He noted that faith-based institutions have clearly defined values and approaches to character development, which make it important for them to participate in staffing decisions.
“For example, if a particular faith-based school has its own ethics and direction for character training and all that, it is good that this faith-based group is also involved in selecting who teaches or works in that school.”
According to him, the current practice where GES makes appointments without consulting the mission founders undermines the schools’ ethos.
“Because if you do not select people who would buy into your frame of mind or into the ethics you have, you can have somebody who does not collaborate.
Appointment of teachers and heads to the schools are now being done just by the Ghana Education Service without reference to the owners of the schools.”
Most Rev. Fianu said the arrangement was originally meant to be a shared responsibility, but the balance shifted over time.
“It was supposed to be a partnership but gradually over the years, I don’t know how it happened, history will be able to explain that.”
He explained that the gradual takeover of key functions by GES has weakened the education units of religious bodies.
“Over the years, the Ghana Education Service took over many of the functions to the point that, education units of the various faith groups became powerless because appointment and employment of teachers which was formerly being done by the units have been taken over by the Education Service.”
He stressed that this shift has affected the quality of education in mission schools, given that their founding ethos is central to shaping students.
“It has affected quality of education more than evangelization because the quality of education that is given is also based on the ethos of the faith-based group that has founded it, and that is what is being used to mold the person who is in that school.”
