Chief Imoro Baba Issa,(right) launching the programme.
The President of the Islamic University College of Ghana (IUCG), Dr. Mohsen Maarefi, has warned that unless a critical view is taken at the base, all efforts at addressing problems confronting Zongo communities may fail to yield the desired impact.
According to him, illiteracy and poverty were the fundamentals which must be addressed head-on, if the war against indiscipline in these societies were to be won.
“When you look at the Muslim society in Ghana, you can see that the old problems of illiteracy and delinquency persist; if you don’t remedy these from the foundation, it would be transferred to the next generation, and it will even get worse and perpetuate the poverty cycle,” he added.
Dr. Maarefi gave the warning at the launch of the newly introduced programme in Early Childhood Education Programme for the school.
The introduction of the programme in the school makes it the third university in the country to offer it.
The President explained that the programme would serve and help train teachers in the area of early childhood, so as to ensure that the children they teach receive the best foundation for their upbringing.
Imoro Baba Issah, Spokesperson for the Council of Zongo Chiefs, commended the institute for introducing the programme, since it would not benefit only those in the Zongo communities but the whole country.
He said as a measure to address some of the challenges confronting the Zongos, a committee was constituted to try and understand the problems, however, their work revealed that issues like poverty, teenage pregnancy and child delinquency were only symptoms of the situation.
Chief Issah said lack of proper parental and upbringing of Zongo children were the fundamentals to the problems in the communities.
He said the introduction of the programme at the school was timely, adding that “It is important that the school considers designing another programme for the various Zongo chiefs to empower them to know what role they are to play in addressing some of the issues confronting the Zongos.”
In a speech read on his behalf, Professor Samuel Hayford, Dean of Faculty of Education Studies, University of Education Winneba (UEW), expressed worry that little attention was paid to early childhood education in the country.
He however pledged the commitment of UEW in shepherding the IUCG into maturity, adding that “you would recognise that by investing in these children today, you are building the society we hope to see in future.”
By Cliff Ekuful & Evangel Kelvin Ainoo
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