Gov’t to introduce curriculum on discipline, responsible citizenship

The central government is set to introduce a special curriculum for the country’s basic and secondary schools aimed at instilling discipline, courtesy, and responsible citizenship in children from an early age.

The basic and secondary school curriculum was proposed by President John Dramani Mahama at the National Sanitation Day held at the Institute of Local Government Studies in Accra on Saturday.

Speaking at the event, His Excellency Mahama disclosed that discussions are ongoing with the Ministry of Education to design a separate curriculum dedicated to discipline, courtesy, and responsible citizenship.

“We are in discussion with the Ministry of Education to see how we can create, as part of the curriculum, a separate curriculum on courtesy and responsible citizenship, so that we can train our children from basic school through secondary school,” he said.

President John Mahama emphasised that the curriculum on discipline and responsible citizenship is essential to building responsible future leaders who will uphold cleanliness and civic responsibility as part of their daily lives.

Citing international examples, President Mahama emphasised how children in countries like Japan are trained to pick up litter and uphold national values of cleanliness, a practice that becomes second nature when they grow.

“The beautiful thing is, they are trained from when they are children to believe in that value. And so, when they grow, they don’t depart from it,” Mr John Dramani explained.

President Mahama concluded that by embedding such lessons into the education system, Ghana can cultivate a disciplined, civic-minded generation to sustain the culture of cleanliness and orderliness in communities.

In other news, President John Dramani Mahama, following the surge in cases of students’ indiscipline in some government second-cycle schools across the country, has expressed deep concern over the worrying and unfortunate situation.

Speaking during a meeting with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference at the Jubilee House on Friday, May 23, 2025, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama emphasised the need for collective action to reverse the trend in indiscipline.

“There is a breakdown of values and morals, and that is creating some issues in our schools. There have been incidents where you find students with guns in our public schools. There is also the student who almost lost her eyesight because a student fired a gun,” he said.

The President also questioned how issues such as curriculum design, moral education, student discipline, and teacher absenteeism were being addressed.

“So, what do we do about our curriculum, moral education, discipline, and teacher absenteeism? The inspectorate division of the GES cannot be everywhere at the same time to make sure that teachers are in school,” he noted.

President John Dramani Mahama called for closer cooperation between the Ghana Education Service (GES) and faith-based institutions to ensure accountability and enhance monitoring in secondary schools across the country.

“So, how can we collaborate with the churches and find out whether the teachers who have been posted to these schools are actually going to schools and teaching? I think collaboration will help solve the issue,” he added.