The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has organised a sensitisation programme to create a platform for students to connect, discuss and share their thoughts on issues that are relevant to them in the December general election.

The programme dubbed “Civic Fest”, had student participants from 10 senior high schools (SHSs) in Accra who were also empowered to promote peaceful elections.

The participating schools were Achimota SHS, Presbyterian Boys’ SHS, Accra Girls SHS, Accra High SHS and St Thomas Aquinas SHS. The rest were Labone SHS, Forces SHS, Accra Academy SHS, St Mary’s SHS and Odogorno SHS.

The event, which was held in Accra last Saturday, was centred around four thematic areas — money in politics, violence and intemperate language, religious intolerance and misinformation, and disinformation and fake news.

It was on the theme: “Together we can build Ghana, So get involved,” and was organised in collaboration with the European Partnership for Democracy, under its flagship programme, Women and Youth in Democracy (WYDE).

Significance

The Chairperson of the NCCE, Kathleen Addy, said: “Our ambition is to make sure that we have a civic education club in every school, and today, we are revamping some of our clubs that have lost momentum as a result of COVID-19, beginning with the 10 schools”.

She said it was part of the commission’s mandate to ensure that the December 7 elections were peaceful and successful to help maintain the country’s stability.  

Ms Addy expressed concern over what she described as religion-based campaigns, saying such behaviours could mar the electoral process, adding that the trend had led to the commission activating its inter-party dialogue committees in various districts.

Committees

“These committees have representatives from the political parties, faith-based institutions, traditional authorities and security personnel. Basically, what they do is to ensure that whatever political misunderstandings that arise in their various districts are resolved,” she said.

Some of the students at the programme

Ms Addy also said that the commission was frequently holding dialogues and educational activities on a regular basis to empower the citizenry to make informed decisions.

To help curb misinformation, disinformation and fake news, the chairperson urged the people to always cross-check the accuracy of information on social media platforms.

She said people must cease forwarding information which authenticity cannot be verified.

Ms Addy further said that this year would be busy with electioneering as the nation heads to the December polls. She said Civic Fest was one of the major events of the commission which would be replicated across the regions.