Religious Tolerance In Ghana's Educational Sector

Ghana our motherland has enjoyed relative peace and harmony for a long time devoid of major conflicts and upheavals. All the tribes have been able to live peacefully with each other. One factor that has contributed to this is the inter tribal marriages amongst the people. Religious tolerance in our communities too can not be left out. Christians, Moslems and Traditionalists live side by side in most of our communities and these groups have co-existed peacefully without resorting to violence to settle their disputes. It is now a common sight to see Christians sharing their food with Moslems and Traditionalists during Christian festivities like Easter and Christmas and the Moslems and Traditionalist also do likewise. All of a sudden we are being hit by certain religious groups complaining about they being forced or coerced to adhere to certain religious faiths in our schools.

I attended Catholic schools from the basic level right to the secondary level and never did i see or observe Moslem students being forced to adhere to the Catholic faith. It was an option for them to be at the religious functions. They could be there and would not participate in the activities. I also had Moslem friends both in school and at home and we used to learn about each other's faith. We should learn to tolerate each other's religion and not force one's religion on others. If care is not taken, very soon, Moslems would like to build mosques in Christian schools, Christians would also build churches in Moslem schools and Traditionalists would also like to build shrines in both the Moslem and Christian schools. When this happens, the time bomb will start to tick and it would just be a matter of time before it would explode into a major conflict in our educational sector. But with all these happenings, all the religious faiths mentioned claim to worship the Supreme Being. I am foreseeing a situation where Christian schools would not admit Moslem students and Moslem schools too would do same. I hope it does not get to that point.

The Ministry of Education should thread cautiously on this matter and make sure it does not generate into something that would take Ghana's educational sector to the Dark Ages. God save Ghana.