The Minority in Parliament has described as retrogressive a decision by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to dismiss eight female students of the Chiana SHS in the Kassena Nankana West District of the Upper East region for insulting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
According to the Minority, whereas it is against the misconduct of the eight students, and condemns same, any decision that takes a child away from the classroom can only be an absolute drawback In this age and time when there is increased advocacy and renewed focus on increasing access to education.
A statement signed by Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, said the eight students like every other Ghanaian child deserve to be in school in line with Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and also Goal(4) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“It is in view of this, that we wish to call on the Ghana Education Service to review its decision and to ensure that the education of the victims is not truncated in this manner.”
“We are also by this statement, urging the GES to proffer an alternative but corrective punishment to the eight students.”
“This we believe would be in the best interest of our collective goal to ensuring that every Ghanaian child has access to formal education,” the statement said.
Background
In November 2022, the nation was taken aback when a video of free SHS students using vulgar words against the president went viral.
The students in the viral video were later identified as second year students of the Chiana Senior High School in the Kassena Nankano West District of the Upper East Region