Rethinking Christian Religious Education in Ghana: History, Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

This scholarly essay employs an African philosophical and symbolic construct—Sankɔfa—to examine religious education in Ghana. Sankɔfa implores the need to examine the past in order to understand the present and to plan for the future. In line with this frame, I recount the history of religious education in Ghana, examine the present challenges, and explore new ways of making Christian Religious Education relevant to contemporary challenges in education.

Notes

Basic education certificate examination (BECE) is an external examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council, which is used as the basis for admission into high schools in Ghana. It is a high-stakes test due to the limited number of high school placements and the quest by students to get admission into the best of the schools.

Gold Coast was the name of the British colonial territory that is now known as Ghana. At independence in 1957, the name was changed to Ghana as a symbolic change in its identity and also to reignite links to the ancient Ghana Empire of the 9th century.

Jim Jones was an American communist pastor who led a congregation of 909 members to commit “a revolutionary suicide” at Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. Read a PBS report of the incident at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/jonestown-nov-18-1978/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richardson Addai-Mununkum

Richardson Addai-Mununkum is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research is focused on religious education in public schools and how religious pluralism is enacted within and outside of classrooms.