Akufo-Addo Steps In For Dismissed School Girls

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has intervened for a more lenient punishment against the eight dismissed female students of Chiana Senior High School in the Ashanti Region.

A press release from the Ministry of Education disclosed the President intervened when the development came to his attention.

The sector Minister has on that note directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to rescind the decision.

Eight girls from the high school were handed dismissal letters this week following investigations into a viral video of them making derogatory statements against the President in November last year.

The Director-General of the GES, Dr Eric Nkansah, in the dismissal letters indicated that the conduct of the girls is “undesirable and contrary to acceptable standards of conduct generally required of any student in our educational system in Ghana”.

Following this, the girls made another video to apologise and plead for leniency kneeling on a dusty ground.

“Some of us are orphans and from broken homes. We don’t know what to do. Please help us, have mercy on us. We feel so remorseful…We are in our final year and some of us our parents can’t afford a private school”, one of them said.

The disciplinary action of the GES has been opposed by a section of the public who felt other forms of punishment could have been adopted.

A Twitter user by the name Samuel Ayeh tweeted, “What happened to Definite internal or external suspension and sufficing correctional measures in our secondary schools? I hold the view that GES has been harsh with the dismissal of the 8 students in Chiana SHS @NUGS_National”.

In the statement from the Ministry, its spokesperson, Kwesi Kwarteng, said, “the Minister for Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum has directed the Ghana Education Service to consider an alternative disciplinary action instead of dismissal”.

The GES is yet to respond to this.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini