The Attorney General has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by lawyer Shafic Osman against Wesley Girls’ High School, arguing that the school’s long-standing Methodist identity allows it to set rules that reflect its religious character. The position is contained in a formal response filed by the state after Osman sued the school, its board, the Ghana Education Service and the Attorney General, claiming that policies restricting certain Islamic practices violate the constitutional rights of Muslim students.
Osman’s suit, filed in the court’s original jurisdiction, alleges that Wesley Girls bars Muslim students from wearing the hijab, discourages fasting during Ramadan and generally limits the free exercise of Islam on campus.
He argues that these practices amount to discrimination and breach the guarantees of equality, religious freedom and education under the 1992 Constitution.
In his response, the Attorney General rejects those claims, insisting that the school’s policies must be understood within the context of its identity as a mission institution founded and run by the Methodist Church.
According to the filing, the school’s ethos is central to its history and operation, and nothing in the Constitution prevents a mission school that is part of the public education system from preserving a religious character or setting rules consistent with it. The Attorney General argues that the Constitution does not require mission schools to abandon the norms that define them simply because they are publicly funded or supervised by the Ghana Education Service.
The state’s position has drawn strong reactions. Muslim student groups have urged dialogue and called for a balance between the school’s Methodist heritage and the rights of Muslim students to practise their faith. Legal analysts have also weighed in, with some arguing that public oversight of a school imposes constitutional duties that cannot be displaced by religious heritage.
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, a noted legal scholar, said the Attorney General’s stance risks elevating denominational rules over constitutional protections that apply to all public institutions.
The case has revived a national conversation about how mission schools — many of which occupy prestigious positions in Ghana’s educational landscape — should handle religious diversity. The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether Wesley Girls’ rules breach constitutional guarantees or fall within the permissible scope of a mission school’s autonomy.
A ruling will likely set a precedent for dozens of mission institutions across the country and could reshape the way the Ghana Education Service regulates religious accommodation in public schools.
