School Choice Cannot Override Constitutional Rights – EduWatch Boss

Africa Education Watch Executive Director, Kofi Asare, says no school’s internal rules or traditions can supersede the constitutional rights of students, especially when it comes to freedom of religion.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, he noted that while Ghana’s senior high schools, including mission institutions, have long allowed Muslim students to observe their prayers, recent debates are creating an impression that these freedoms are negotiable.

“The matter at hand is not about girls’ schools. It is about whether students can freely exercise their religious rights within mission schools,” he clarified.

Mr. Asare emphasised that Ghana’s Constitution and international conventions offer clear protection for religious expression. He pointed to Article 17, which forbids discrimination of any kind, including on religious grounds.

He explained that two pillars guide religious rights: non-discrimination and non-compulsion.
According to him, forcing a student to adopt a religion or preventing them from practicing their own is a direct violation of these principles.

Addressing claims that parents who choose mission schools automatically agree to follow their religious rules, he argued that the right to choose a school does not erase a student’s constitutional freedoms.

“The power of choice cannot override rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Mr. Asare stressed. “Whether a parent chose the school or not, no student should be compelled to practise or abandon any religion.”

He warned that policies or actions that single out students based on their faith amount to discrimination and undermine Ghana’s commitment to protecting fundamental freedoms.

“What we are examining,” he concluded, “is the dangerous possibility of students being treated differently solely because they are in a particular school.”