CHRAJ pushes for human rights in school curriculum
This came to light when a three-member delegation from the Commission recently discussed this possibility with the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adu-Twum.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is pushing for the introduction of human rights education in the Ghanaian school curriculum.
This came to light when a three-member delegation from the Commission recently discussed this possibility with the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adu-Twum.
Led by CHRAJ's Deputy Commissioner, Mercy Larbi, the delegation presented a proposal titled, Mainstreaming Human Rights Education in the Ghanaian School System. Ms. Larbi emphasized that the commission, alongside the Danish Institute for Human Rights and other partners, had developed a framework aimed at standardizing human rights education across pre-tertiary levels.
She expressed CHRAJ’s vision of establishing human rights as a dedicated subject within the school curriculum.
In response, Dr. Adu-Twum pointed out that the current curriculum is already extensive, making it challenging to add new subjects.
He suggested, instead, that human rights concepts could be incorporated into existing subjects like Our World, Our People for junior students and Government for senior high school students.
For younger children in kindergarten through primary school, he proposed the creation of storybooks centered on human rights, which could be used as mandatory supplementary reading material.
Dr. Adu-Twum also recommended that human rights education be expanded to the tertiary level, incorporating it into assessable coursework, especially in programs such as teaching and nursing, where professionals often encounter human rights issues firsthand.
