GES, Faith-Based Schools Call for Values-Driven Education
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GES, Faith-Based Schools Push for Values-Driven Education in the Age of AI
Ghana’s education leaders are sounding a common alarm: knowledge and technical skill alone are no longer enough. At a recent education conference in the Western Region, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, made the case for an education system built around knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values working together not knowledge alone.
His argument is simple. Academic achievement matters, but it isn’t the finish line. Education, he said, should shape learners into responsible citizens who can put what they know to good use, both for themselves and for the wider society.
Davis made these remarks at the 2026 Annual General Meeting, Workshop and Conference of Managers of Education Units in the Western Region. The event ran under the theme “Faith-Based Education in the 21st Century: Challenges, Opportunities and the Way Forward.”
He didn’t shy away from crediting faith-based institutions for the role they’ve played historically. These schools helped build Ghana’s education system from the ground up training teachers, establishing schools, and instilling values like honesty, respect, empathy, service, and accountability along the way.
But the world these schools now operate in looks very different. Artificial intelligence, social media, and globalisation are reshaping how young people learn and think, and Davis believes faith-based institutions need to rethink their approach to keep pace.
Davis was clear that AI isn’t the enemy. It offers real opportunities to improve teaching, learning, and school administration. But it also opens the door to risks misinformation, harmful content, and other negative influences that weren’t part of the equation a generation ago.
His solution: don’t just teach students to use AI, teach them to be good humans too. We have to teach AI as well as HI, he said, using HI to mean Human Intelligence. His point was pointed skilled people without integrity, empathy, or a sense of responsibility can end up doing real harm with the very abilities that make them impressive.
He also reminded the room that character isn’t shaped in classrooms alone. Homes, communities, traditional media, and social media all play a part in molding who children become. That’s why he called for closer collaboration between government and faith-based Education Units to strengthen teacher training, embrace innovation responsibly, protect children, and weave values education into academic and vocational programmes rather than treating it as an afterthought.
The Provost of Takoradi Technical University, Ing. Prof. Ebenezer Boakye, echoed much of what Davis said. His framing was memorable: education needs to transform people, not simply inform them.
He warned that knowledge and technical skill, without the right attitude behind them, can actually work against the society education is supposed to serve. His call to education managers was to bring back values like discipline, integrity, diligence, respect, compassion, and service while adapting them to fit life in the 21st century.
The Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson, added his own voice to the conversation, describing faith-based education as an essential partner in Ghana’s development given its long track record in the sector.
His message to government was blunt: it can’t do this alone. He called for stronger collaboration among government, faith-based organisations, teachers, parents, communities, and other stakeholders all working toward the same goal.
Nelson urged education managers to use the conference as a moment to “rethink, reform and reposition” faith-based education holding on to its core values while embracing new technology and innovation.
His closing thought summed up the stakes well: The future of Ghana will be determined, to a large extent, by the quality of education we provide to our children today.
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