The Christian Apologetic Alliance says Christian mission schools should not be made to alter their religious identity to accommodate the practices of Muslim students, arguing that these institutions have a right to preserve the Christian ethos, traditions and worship on which they were founded.
In a press statement responding to an earlier release by the Ghana Muslim Students Association on the rights and welfare of Muslim students in mission schools, the Alliance said the protection of religious rights and dignity is itself a Christian principle, but argued this does not extend to permitting individual religious preferences to override the institutional character of schools that students voluntarily choose to attend.
The group said mission schools predate the modern Ghanaian state, crediting nineteenth-century Basel, Wesleyan and Catholic missionaries with pioneering literacy, formal education, vocational training and healthcare in the country. It said these institutions “apologise to no one” for their Christian identity, describing it as core to their character rather than an incidental feature.
According to the Alliance, uniformity, order and discipline in mission schools have historically been tied to participation in Christian worship, and it maintained that exempting students of other faiths from such activities would undermine the educational model itself. It cited hypothetical scenarios, including a Hindu student remaining behind during worship or a traditionalist student defying dress codes, to illustrate what it called disruptions to institutional uniformity and discipline.
The statement argued that religious freedom protects individuals but does not grant them the right to “redesign” an institution founded on a different religious identity, and rejected the argument that public funding obliges mission schools to alter their Christian character. It said the state inherited an educational foundation built by Christian missions and owes those institutions a historical debt rather than grounds to dismantle their ethos.
Referencing Nigeria, the Alliance warned against what it described as prolonged state interference diluting the ethos of mission schools, pointing to disputes over Islamic head coverings in Osun and Kwara States in 2013 and 2021 that it said escalated into confrontations, including assaults on school staff. It said the comparison was meant as a cautionary lesson rather than to inflame tensions.
The group outlined its position in a series of affirmations, stating that Muslims have the right to practise their faith, Christians have the right to maintain Christian institutions, and mission schools have the right to preserve their founding traditions, worship and disciplinary frameworks. It added that students from other religious backgrounds should be welcomed and treated with dignity, but said religious tolerance should not be confused with institutional religious identity.
The Alliance called on the Government of Ghana, the Ghana Education Service, churches, school authorities, parents and other stakeholders to protect what it termed the historic and distinctive character of mission schools, describing them as “Ghana’s crown jewels.”
Source:Fiilafmonline/3News
