Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Resolve Bawku conflict to safeguard children’s future

It is sad that final-year junior high school (JHS) students in the Bawku Municipality have to write the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Ex­aminations (BECE) under heavy security due to the volatile situation in the area.

It is even sadder to learn that this is not the first time both the police and soldiers are ensuring the safety of BECE students in the municipality, particularly Bawku and its immediate environs.

According to the Upper East Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service, the practice has come to be associated with the examination since the outbreak of the communal clashes in the area in 2021.

Such clashes are attribut­ed to the long-standing chieftaincy conflict between the Kusasis and Mamprusis in that part of the region.

This is unfortunate because even though some of these students are aware and even witnessed some of the atrocities in the clashes, they may have not felt being intimately part of it before than in this week, a fateful period in their educational career.

Here are children writ­ing an examination that can define their lives in an important way but hav­ing police and soldiers all around them.

In spite of such a situa­tion occurring since 2021, like their fellow students who individually experi­enced it as first-time event in the past, not all the cur­rent BECE candidates can accommodate the situation as normal.

We believe if the children had a choice, they would opt for a situation where, as usual, only one or two policemen and women would be around, to ensure law and order regarding the examination and not neces­sarily their safety.

The situation is not palatable as some of the children may find it intimi­dating and negatively affect their performance.

Therefore, the happening must speak to those at the centre of the Mamapru­si-Kusasi chieftaincy con­flict and other stakeholders to reflect and seek ways to resolve it amicably.

This will bring peace to make life enjoyable for both children and adults as they undertake their vari­ous endeavours.

Our concern is so much about the fact that the conflict is taking a toll on children in a way.

It can happen that if some children fail the BECE all because the pres­ence of security personnel intimidated them and the conflict is yet to be re­solved, they would not have the courage to re-write it and their vision to become good educated individuals may be curtailed.

Meanwhile, the Bawku area in particular and the country as a whole need these children to acquire good education to become the responsible adults they envision for themselves in order to be able to qualita­tively contribute to national development.

Is it not even more worrying that a number of children of school age have abandoned schooling as a result of the chieftaincy conflict between Kusasis and Mamprusis?

Have we thought of the implication(s)?

Let the whole nation therefore seek the best way possible to resolve the Bawku chieftaincy conflict to save innocent children in the area from losing the opportunities that would help them prepare for pro­ductive adult lives so their lives will not be jeopardised in future.