Napo addressing the headmasters
THE MINISTER of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh aka ‘Napo’, has said his ministry will not spare any teacher that is caught having sexual relationship with female students in the various Senior High Schools (SHS).
He stated emphatically that “The boarding schools in the country are not brothels”, therefore any teacher that would try to take advantage of the female children to sexually abuse them would be exposed and punished.
Napo, who sounded peeved, gave the warning when he addressed heads of some selected SHS in the northern sector of the country at the Kumasi Anglican School (KASS) in Kumasi on Monday.
The Minister of Education was commenting on the alleged bonking of female students at the Ejisuman Senior High School (SHS) in the Ashanti Region, a disturbing issue he bemoaned had attracted wide media coverage recently.
Napo stated that the alleged bonking issue at Ejisuman SHS had adversely affected the image of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and all other major stakeholders, stressing that such shameful issues should not take place in schools again.
According to him, even though the Ejisuman issue is an allegation, the fact that some of the alleged victims had openly accused the teachers of having carnal knowledge of them, makes the allegation a serious one.
The Education Minister therefore admonished teachers, especially male teachers, to lead their lives in a decent manner that would not even give room for female students to have the chance to accuse them of harassing them sexually.
He tasked headmasters to also sit up and make sure that teachers in their schools do not take advantage of female students, who are underage, and harassed them sexually; noting that such ungodly acts would not be tolerated.
“Henceforth, I am going to hold regional directors of education responsible if such a bad action happens in your region and you don’t take steps to protect the children. Headmasters should also act appropriately when such issues happen in their schools,” he admonished.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
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