GES Reinstates GHANASCO Headmaster, Housemaster

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has announced the reinstatement of the headmaster and senior Housemaster of Ghana Senior High School, Tamale (GHANASCO).

Mr Douglas Haruna Yakubu, the headmaster and Mr Seibu Fuseini, the housemaster were interdicted after a viral video portrayed students occupying washrooms as dormitory.

Their reinstatement was announced in a press statement dated May 10 by the GES.

This was after the Service reviewed reports of investigations into the allegation by a committee.

It added that the Regional Director of Education would work with the management of the school to ensure that the recommendations of the committee are implemented.

Background

Videos of male students using toilet cubicles as dormitories surfaced on social media in mid-April. The students, in the video, had their mattresses and belonging in there and in a hallway.

The video linked to GHANASCO received condemnation from a section of the public including the deputy Ranking member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Hon Clement Apaak.

Following this, the GES released a statement directing the two to step aside to make way for investigations into the allegations.

It condemned the news as unacceptable, disturbing and unfortunate, stating that accommodation shouldn’t be a problem for the school. It said records available indicate that the school has 300 excess accommodation capacity for students.

“This is very disturbing and unfortunate especially when records available to us indicate that out of the 1790 vacancies declared by the school, only 1467 students have been enrolled,” the statement from the head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Cassandra Twum Amofo stated.

The allegations were denied by the headmaster.

“That facility has been there for so many years, it has never been a dormitory or a storage room, it is a store more or less. In the 60s when Kwame Nkrumah built the rooms, they were washrooms, and so they still have the design of washrooms, but the facility has not been modernised, so they are just small, small cubicles and that is where we keep our chop boxes when students are travelling,” he was quoted as saying by Citinews.