Education Always

Level: Class 6 (Primary 6) | Subject: Religious and Moral Education (RME) | Topic: Stewardship, Vocation, Beliefs About Life After Death, and Moral Courage | Curriculum: Ghana NaCCA

Class 6 is the final year of primary school, and this RME lesson covers some of the deepest questions that religion and moral philosophy engage with: our responsibility for the world around us, the question of a calling or purpose in life, what different traditions believe about what happens after death, and the courage to do what is right even when it is costly.

Stewardship: Taking Care of What Has Been Entrusted to Us

Stewardship is the responsible management of something entrusted to your care. The word comes from the idea that we are not the ultimate owners of things – we hold them in trust for others, including future generations.

Stewardship of the Environment

In Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religion, human beings are understood to be custodians of the earth, not its masters. The earth was not created for human beings alone. It was created for all living things across all time.

Environmental stewardship means:

• Not cutting down forests without replanting.
• Not polluting rivers, which belong to the whole community and to future generations.
• Using natural resources carefully and not wastefully.
• Standing against illegal mining and land degradation.

Stewardship of Talents and Gifts

Every person is born with gifts: the ability to think, create, build, heal, teach, lead, serve. Religious traditions across Ghana teach that these gifts are not given for personal gain alone – they are given to be used for the benefit of others. A teacher who only teaches to collect a salary but does not truly invest in students is misusing a gift. A doctor who turns away the poor is failing their stewardship.

Stewardship of Relationships and Trust

When someone trusts you with their money, their secrets, their children, or their heart, you hold that trust as a stewardship responsibility. Violating trust betrays something that was given freely and is not easily restored.

Vocation: Finding Your Purpose

A vocation is more than a job. It is a sense of calling – a deep feeling that you are meant to do something particular with your life because it aligns with your gifts, your values, and the needs of others.

Questions That Lead to Vocation

• What am I naturally good at? What do I do that feels effortless to me but difficult for others?
• What do I care about most deeply?
• Where does the world need what I have to offer?
• What would I do even if no one paid me for it?

Vocation Does Not Require Wealth

A farmer who grows food sustainably and well, a teacher in a rural school who pours herself into her students, a community health worker who walks kilometres to reach remote families – all of these people are living out vocations just as much as a famous doctor or a wealthy entrepreneur. The measure of a vocation is not the salary it brings but the meaning it creates and the good it does.

Religious Perspectives on Vocation

• Christianity: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.” (1 Peter 4:10)
• Islam: The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “The best of people are those who are most beneficial to people.”
• African tradition: A person’s purpose is understood in relation to the community. Your gift is not truly yours until it serves those around you.

Beliefs About Life After Death

One of the most profound questions human beings ask is: what happens when we die? Different religious traditions offer different answers.

Christianity

Christians believe in bodily resurrection – that after death, the soul rests until a final resurrection at the end of time. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ and lived faithfully will experience eternal life with God in heaven. Those who have rejected God will face judgement. Life on earth is a preparation for eternity.

Islam

Muslims believe that after death, the soul enters a state called Barzakh (an intermediate state) until the Day of Judgement (Yawm al-Qiyamah). On that day, all human beings will be raised and judged by Allah according to their deeds. The righteous will enter Paradise (Jannah), and those who failed will face consequences.

African Traditional Religion

In many Ghanaian traditional beliefs, death is not the end of existence but a transition. The deceased person becomes an ancestor who continues to be part of the family’s life from the spirit world. Ancestors are honoured through libation, naming of children after them, and other rituals. They intercede for the living before the Supreme Being.

What These Beliefs Have in Common

• Life on earth has significance and consequences beyond the grave.
• How we treat other people matters deeply.
• Death is not the absolute end of a person’s existence.
• There is accountability – what we do in this life is not meaningless or forgotten.

Moral Courage

Moral courage is the willingness to do what is right even when it is difficult, unpopular, or costly. It is different from physical courage (which is about facing physical danger). Moral courage involves standing up for truth, justice, or another person even when you face social pressure, ridicule, or loss of standing to do so.

Examples of Moral Courage

• Telling a teacher when a classmate is being bullied, even though bullies may target you next.
• Refusing to join in with a group that is spreading false rumours about someone.
• Admitting your own mistake in front of others when it would be easier to stay quiet.
• Standing up for someone who is being treated unjustly, even if they are not your friend.

The Cost of Moral Cowardice

When people who know what is right stay silent, injustice continues. When bystanders say nothing as someone is bullied, they become passive participants in the harm. Moral cowardice – the failure to act on what you know is right – is one of the most common human failings. Most people do not choose evil actively: they simply choose comfort and silence over moral action.

Building Moral Courage

• Know your values clearly. You cannot act on what you believe if you do not know what you believe.
• Practise small acts of moral courage daily. The habit of honesty in small things prepares you for honesty in big things.
• Remember that moral courage always feels harder before the moment than after it. The relief and self-respect that follow usually outweigh the discomfort of the choice.

Practice Questions: Stewardship, Vocation, and Moral Courage

Primary School Complete. All Class 1 through Class 6 subjects now have foundational lesson content. Students who complete Class 6 move into JHS. Explore the JHS section of this site for Mathematics, English, Integrated Science, Social Studies, and French content at the JHS level.