Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum
A Deputy Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, says teachers at Ejisuman Girls Senior High School found to have made inappropriate sexual advances on students, should not be allowed to teach again until their cases are finally determined.
“They cannot and should not [teach] until the investigation is concluded and action is taken,” Dr. Yaw Adutwum stated on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Wednesday, April 4, 2018.
Some eight interdicted teachers of Ejisuman Girls SHS in the Ashanti Region, have been found guilty of sexual misconduct after a special investigative committee set up by the Ghana Education Service (GES) established inappropriate sexual advances were made on the students.
The moral wrong
The Deputy Minister told show host, Daniel Dadzie that: “The allegations that were made were strong enough for the staff to be interdicted.
“Whatever it is, you are not supposed to be close to children in any shape or form,” he said of the teachers whose fate will be determined by the Education Service in Accra.
He faulted the leadership of the GES for being “complicit in this case” because of their failure to institute a policy “to train the teachers to avoid this and to protect our children”.
New teaching policy
Dr. Adutwum hinted the Ministry of Education has engaged the GES to come out with a policy in the 2018/19 academic year, that will not only investigate and punish teachers for indulging in such misconduct but will also have “a robust training programme aligned with the code of conduct of our teachers.”
The policy he said, will see the law enforcement agencies lead in investigating such allegations for the teachers to know that such misconduct can cause them to lose their license to teach.
The new policy. he indicated, will educate girls “…to understand that you have a right to say no” to sexual advances from teachers.
The Deputy Minister is expectant that “…we can stamp it out so that when children go to school they know that they are to learn and not that they are going to be preyed upon.”
-Myjoyonline