Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment (Rise-Ghana), a local Non-Governmental Organization in the Upper East Region in partnership with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has organized a sensitization workshop to educate the leadership of student groups of the CK Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal on dangers of violence extremism.
The workshop which was spearheaded by Rise-Ghana was among other things to increase awareness of students on Conflict, Peace Building and relevant laws, create enabling environment for better coexistence, prevention of conflict and the promotion of preventive diplomacy in the school.
The ‘’Peace In Schools’’ project Funded By the European Union as part of the ‘Preventing Electoral Violence and providing Security to the Northern Border Regions of Ghana’ (NORPREVSEC) project been implemented by RISE-Ghana is targeted at Preventing Extremism and Conflict in Educational Institutions and Schools in the Upper East Region.
The project also aims at training and supporting Identifiable Groups and Association Representatives in 15 Schools to develop and implement school-based Preventing Violent Extremism (PEV) year-long awareness raising action plans including radio discussions, drama and faith-based outreaches in the region.
Speaking to the media, the Program’s Manager of Rise-Ghana, Jaw Haratu Amadu said the students engagement has been necessitated following the temporal close down of at least three 2nd cycle schools in the Region due to ethnic related riots in the 2020/2021 academic year.
Mrs Amadu believes that, ‘’Student riots are potential breeding grounds for radicalization and extremism, a situation that leads to a transition from petty school conflicts into other latent conflicts that come up in their communities’’.
‘’In recent times, 2nd cycle and tertiary institutions have attracted the keen interest Occultists, Political parties and Violent Extremist Organizations that seek to build their bases by feeding on the youthful exuberance and the huge ignorance, hence the engagement to increase awareness of students on Conflict, Peace Building and relevant laws ’’. She added.
The Regional Director of the NCCE, Mawuli Agbenu who was the facilitator for the engagement underscored the need to intensify education on religious and political tolerance with vigilance against any form of violence.
Mr Agbenu said, the youth in particular are vulnerable and susceptible to the advances of extremist groups because of a number of reasons, including ‘’employment opportunities, availability of proper health care; poverty; societal norms, socio-economic status and several other factors that might affect a student’s coping ability and drive acceptance of violent extremist ideologies’’.
