Education Minister warns students

Students who misconduct themselves in school and wilfully destroy state property would be summarily dismissed or given a long-term suspension.

The Minister of Education, Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi said the measure was designed to curb the increasing act of indiscipline in the country's educational institutions once and for all.

Speaking at the 10th anniversary and prize-giving day of the Senya-Beraku Senior Secondary School at the weekend, Prof. Akumfi made it clear that the government would no longer tolerate any violent and destructive student demonstrations in secondary schools and higher places of learning.

He said the nation could not afford to spend billions of cedis to provide infrastructural facilities for secondary and tertiary institutions only for a bunch of undisciplined students to wilfully decide on their own to destroy such valuable national assets with impunity.

Prof. Akumfi said his Ministry has directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure the implementation of strict disciplinary procedures and sanctions in educational institutions in order to curb this trend.

He asked chiefs, religious leaders, teachers, Parent/Teacher Associations, parents, guardians and other stakeholder to actively involve themselves in the national crusade against all forms of indiscipline among the youth so that the nation could produce good future leaders.

Prof. Akumfi said the government would no longer entertain parents, guardians, chiefs and other prominent citizens in the society, pleading for riot students after such lawless students have woefully and intentionally destroyed state property and in some cases, brutalised their headmasters and other officials of their institutions.

Prof. Akumfi reiterated government's desire to provide quality education for the youth to make them dependable and resourceful nation builders, and charged all Ghanaians to contribute to this effort because it is a collective approach that would help achieve this objective.

He commended the board of governors, the management and the students of the Senya-Beraku Senior Secondary School for their hard work and unity of purpose in the face of all odds, and promised that the new six-classroom block which has come to a standstill for a couple of years now, would be completed within the next four months.

In addition, his ministry would also assist the school to complete work on its dormitory and also provide other facilities that would enable the institution to march up with its counterparts in the urban centres.