The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Archbishop John Bonaventure Kwofie, has urged churches and schools to strengthen collaboration to ensure that children receive holistic quality education.
He said the continuity of a holistic quality education was crucial in the midst of global influences and some unfavourable policies on quality education.
“School managements, teachers and parents must be more alert to the factors which mitigates the delivery of quality catholic education, and collaborate with the leadership of the church to overcome them.
If we work together for the good of our children and prosperity, they will continue to enjoy academic excellence good health, emotional maturity and professional expertise,” he said.
Ceremony
The Archbishop of Accra said this during the 60th anniversary celebration of the St Theresa’s School in Accra on Saturday, October 29, 2022.
The celebration was climaxed with a Speech and Prize Giving Day, where students who had excelled in the 2022 academic year from kindergarten to the Junior High School level where awarded.
Some teaching and non-teaching staff were also honoured for their exceptional work at the school over the years.
The celebration was on the theme “Sixty years of quality catholic education; The way forward”.
Catholic education
Archbishop Kwofie said Catholic education had over the years equipped students with the intellectual, spiritual, moral, physical and emotional dimensions of human development.
He said such holistic education, where the church had a role to manage schools, helped to achieve the desired results.
“Thankfully in the past 60 years, St Theresa’s school has demonstrated their capacity to deliver quality education,” he said.
He thanked successive Archbishops, the parent teacher association (PTA), managers and board of the school for their diverse contributions to the development of the school.
The Headmistress of the School, Rev Sister Chris-Sheila Damalie, said the institution had provided an all-round holistic education to children over the past 60 years and would continue to do so.
To the graduating students, she congratulated them and advised them to have integrity and courage in the face of adversity.
“Look after yourself — especially your health both physically and mentally, follow your instincts and broaden your knowledge by reading as much as you can,” she advised.
Cultural identity
A Physician Consultant, Dr John Kweku Laast, who spoke on the theme, urged schools to teach the various cultures and Ghana’s identity so that the children would not forget where they had come from.
“The value of citizenship and cultural identity should be strongly incorporated in our education to teach the children the history of their culture.
“Some children have never left the country but they do not speak any Ghanaian language; they need guidance to learn about their culture,” he said.
Dr Laast also called for the need to introduce technical training to children at an early age to promote entrepreneurship.