The Gender Minister has reportedly undertaken a belated visit to the Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS).
It is an eye-serving visit which would neither mitigate the pain of the abused girls of the school nor assure us that a future recurrence would be impossible.
Her intervention should have come in the form of a statement condemning the alleged abusive conduct and ensuring that the responsive law enforcement action is effected as soon as the matter cropped up. She cannot feign ignorance of the anomaly.
Her non-action at a time this was needed is understandable regardless of the damage this has caused. She could not have taken such an action against her party colleague. And that is what takes a large chunk away from her dignity as a minister charged with the responsibility of ensuring among other terms, that our girls are safe from irresponsible male predators.
Visiting the school at a time when there are subtle efforts at spoiling evidence required to proceed with the case will yield nothing. While some teachers who know so much have coiled into their shells as it were, some colleagues having been transferred and others penciled for punitive actions over their roles in supporting the abused girls.
We have noticed the PR-intended front page stories about the unproductive visit and promises.
The female students of the school need sincere assurances of support. The minister should have responded to the suspect’s irritating claim that one of the girls is a ‘born one’. It is such an irresponsible remark, coming as it were from an embattled headmaster. It is as though a ‘born one’ can be preyed upon without her consent.
Let us allow the Obuasi Senior High Technical School incidents and others before it to push us to provide proper safety for our female students, not only in senior high schools but at the tertiary level.
We have often ignored what female students in tertiary institutions also go through at the hands of Casanova lecturers.
We have not made the necessary noise that can ensure the safety of students at the hands of their teachers and lecturers. Â When culprits are even given top government positions, wrong and dangerous optics that there is nothing unusual about this predatory conduct are emitted accordingly. That is not the kind of society we want to build in this country.
Let us not be surprised when delay is deliberately used to kill the Obuasi sex saga.
Enough has been said and written about the Obuasi issue, but it does not look like those whose lethargy when the subject landed on their desks in the form of petitions led to where we are today would be considered for sanctions.
The two scapegoats are not enough. Are others such as the regional minister and others too big to step aside as the so-called investigations go on?
The Education Minister has directed the Ghana Education Service to ban the engagement of students for domestic chores in teachers’ residences. We recommended this earlier in a commentary.
It is not enough to issue a directive whose compliance cannot be vouched for.
There should be a means of monitoring compliance so that those who flout the directives are sanctioned.