The recent controversy at Wesley Girls High School over the practice of Islam by Muslim students has ignited an emotional national debate.
Yet, beneath all the heat lies a plain, almost stubbornly simple truth—the rules of Wesley Girls have never been hidden.
They are clearly written, openly stated, and willingly accepted before any student steps foot on campus.
The school’s prospectus spells out its identity without equivocation: Wesley Girls is a Methodist institution built firmly on Wesleyan values, practices, and traditions.
This is not an afterthought. It is not an administrative improvisation.
It is the foundation stone on which the school has stood for generations.
Every student who applies does so with full knowledge of these traditions.
Public School with mission identity
Yes, Wesley Girls is today a public school. But it did not lose its character the moment it came under the Ghana Education Service.
Many so-called “public” senior high schools in Ghana remain mission-founded institutions with deeply rooted religious identities—Achimota, Mfantsipim, Holy Child, St. Augustine’s College, Bishop Herman, and others.
Their founding missions did not evaporate merely because the state assumed supervisory responsibility.
Public oversight does not erase institutional heritage. Nor does it compel a school to abandon its philosophical anchor.
Constitution, myth of ‘absolute freedom’
Critics argue that Ghana is a secular country.
Therefore, schools cannot restrict religious practice.
Others add that no rule can supersede the constitution, which guarantees freedom of worship.
Both arguments are correct—but incomplete.
The same Constitution that protects freedom of religion also protects freedom of association.
The moment a citizen voluntarily joins an association, institution, school, or group, they submit to the rules of that association so long as those rules are lawful and not discriminatory in intent or effect.
Wesley Girls does not discriminate against Muslims. It admits Muslims. It educates Muslims. It supports Muslims.
What it does not do—and has never pretended to do—is run a multi-faith worship system. Its rules apply equally to every student, regardless of their background.
Choice has consequences. If one freely chooses Wesley Girls, one also chooses the Wesleyan code of discipline, worship, and tradition.
That is how freedom works.
Admission is not an accident
Wesley Girls does not pull students off the street. It admits students based on merit—strict merit. A student with a good grade does not automatically enter Wesley Girls.
The school is oversubscribed every year, and only those who meet the cut-off are selected.
Those who criticise the school forget this central fact: Admission is competitive.
Not compulsory.
If a Muslim parent insists on daily Islamic worship for their child, Ghana has dozens of excellent Islamic senior high schools.
No Christian parent would walk into a Muslim school demanding Sunday Mass or the construction of a chapel.
We all understand that institutions reflect the values of their founders.
Why then should Wesley Girls be singled out for forced pluralism?
Mission schools have boundaries: And Ghana respects them Across Ghana, mission schools have historically rejected the construction of rival religious facilities on their campuses—not out of malice, but to preserve the integrity of their founding mandates.
The same is true in Muslim institutions, where Christian worship is not permitted and female students may be required to wear the hijab.
These practices have coexisted peacefully for decades because Ghanaians understand a basic principle—institutional identity matters.
To demand that Wesley Girls abandon its Methodist ethos is to demand that mission schools become religiously neutral zones.
That would require a national policy decision—not emotional pressure on a single school.
To later insist that the school rewrite its spiritual DNA because a student wants a different religious experience is unfair—not only to the school but to the thousands who choose it precisely because of its Wesleyan discipline.
Let Wesley Girls be Wesley Girls
The debate ultimately asks a simple question: Should a mission school abandon its mission?
If the answer is yes, then Ghana must be ready to strip dozens of mission schools of their identities.
If the answer is no—and common sense suggests it should be—then Wesley Girls deserves the right to maintain the character that has shaped generations of women of substance.
Wesley Girls has followed its prospectus.
The rules are known.
The choice is voluntary.
And the Constitution supports the freedom of institutions to define themselves within the law.
Let Wesley Girls remain what it has always been—a disciplined, mission-founded institution with a clear identity.
The Wesley Girls prospectus does not hide its religious backbone.
It explicitly states that worship, devotion, formation, discipline, and character training are grounded in Methodist or Wesleyan tradition.
Every parent sees this. Every student reads it.
And every applicant signs up with informed consent.
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