The Ghana Education Service has called for a stakeholders' approach towards purging immorality and violence in school communities, especially second cycle schools.

The Acting Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof Smile Gavua Dzisi, said that while her outfit takes measures to sanction perpetrators of unlawful acts, teachers and school managers have bigger roles to play in nipping the canker in the bud.

She outlined teenage pregnancy, lack of interest in academic activities, surfing social media for pleasure, watching pornography, violent attacks, occultism, shooting, and stabbing among others as occurring incidents in the second cycle schools, that needed to be tackled.

She was speaking at the 9th Conference of Heads, Chaplains, Managers, and Directors of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, (COHCEP) held in Sogakofe in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region.

“What is happening? What are we not doing right? All of us, it is our collective responsibility and we must try and get it right”, she said.

Teachers must position themselves to be seen as role models

Prof Smile Gavua Dzisi entreated teachers to be proactive stewards in guiding their students to become responsible adults to help advance the development of society.

She also advised teachers to devote themselves to the worship of Christ and be guided by the word of God in taking care of His creation, while ensuring their practices are bound by the Code of Ethics.

She underscored the imperative need for teachers to invest in building their capacity to be able to handle complex situations in schools and train their students.

“So as educators, let us prepare ourselves. Let us have the skills to reach out to people. Let us have interpersonal skills, work as a team, and work on yourself first before you go to others. You must be highly knowledgeable so that you can be ahead of other schools”, she stressed.

Immorality in Schools; E.P. Church’s Approach

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the E.P. Church, Rt. Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. (Rtd.) Bliss Divine Kofi Agbeko expressed deep concerns about the increasing trend of immorality in educational institutions.

He stressed that the Church would continue to guide E.P. Church mission schools to prioritize instilling discipline and moral values in students.

He reiterated a collective approach towards changing the current narrative of violence in schools, students physically assaulting teachers, cases of sexual assault, occultism among others.

“As mission schools, we have some objectives, moral objectives. God loving, God fearing objectives to be inculcated into students so that they come out as disciplined, well-behaved, well-mannered and cultured people to be viable in society, anywhere they are placed”, he said.

Proposed AI curriculum for second-cycle schools

Rt. Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. (Rtd.) Bliss Divine Kofi Agbeko proposed that managers of second-cycle schools should develop an AI curriculum for their students.

This he believes would play a crucial role in equipping students with the requisite skill set to make them viable and competent in the fourth industrial revolution.

He posited that it is incumbent on the education sector to help in producing a workforce that would advance the country’s development agenda by harnessing the potential of the fourth industrial revolution.

“This is why we think that our educational unit should introduce a curriculum that will help prepare, teach, and make students capable of engaging or using artificial intelligence at the workplace, at home among others. We must address our needs through the kind of education that we offer”, he said.

He pledged the Church’s commitment to providing the needed capacity building for teachers in moderating artificial intelligence training and financing the procurement of the required logistics as well.

The President of COHCEP, Pastor Ernestina Doris Peniana said Conference was convened to enable members to build their capacity and align with the recent trends of teaching and managing school communities.

She underscores the crucial roles of teachers and managers of schools in the nurturing of students to become leaders of tomorrow and urges them to put their hands to the wheel.

“As we stand at the intersection of faith and education, our calling is sacred. Our schools are not just centres of learning-they are gardens of hope, where character is cultivated, faith is deepened, and leaders are born. The role each of us plays-as a Head, Chaplain, or Manager-is vital to this noble cause”, she said.

Participants at the conference were taken through topics such as; building relationship: a strategic imperative for heads and chaplains in educational institutions.

The rest were harmonizing hearts and minds: re-enacting the role of music in holistic education in Ghana and Identifying and managing mental health issues in our schools and colleges.