The co-founder of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Gyimah-Boadi, has proposed the improvment of civic education in schools to create active citizenship.
He argued that the current teaching of civic education is not comprehensible enough.
however, when improved it will serve as a catalyst for active citizen participation, he noted.
Prof Gyimah Boadi in his presentation at the STAR Ghana Foundation programme themed, ‘Active Citizenship for Transformational Charge’, stated that “civic education is a crucial but underserved area in the promotion of active citizenship.”
He added that civic education helps to address the growing cases of tax evation, low sense of nationalism, among others.
Highlighting the essence of civic education, the former Afrobarometer boss explained that “civic education teaches citizens to respect the rights and freedom of others, participate in community development, and pay income tax and other taxes on time.”
Also, citizens take on “jury duties and serve the country in military service if the need arises.”
He explained that “a citizenry whose overwhelming majority’s income or property are not taxed but are only taxed indirectly even if they are tasked at all is a citizenry which does not have their skin in the game and therefore are unlikely to take the game seriously.”
This makes “citizens unlikely to see themselves as the true government officials rather than being clients to be patronized by government officials”, Prof Gyimah Boadi added.
He further criticised the silence of human rights CSOs on LGBTQ and other issues of discrimination which has become national debate.