Children’s rights advocacy network, Child Rights International, is demanding that the Ghana Education Service (GES) hands over rape incidents in two Ashanti Region senior high schools to the police.
The Executive Director for Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, said the teachers’ conduct is beyond the authority of the school’s leadership.
In an interview with Citi News, Mr. Appiah explained that there are certain offences that can be dealt with by the school’s management since they have the backing of the state and the GES.
He however said that there are other offences within the country’s criminal code that needs the intervention of the Ghana Police Service to interrogate and reach a reasonable conclusion.
“For anybody who commits such an offence, one of the things that is required of them is to report the matter to the appropriate institutions for them to take it up, they can also within their own system deal with administrative issues because at the end of the day, the state has entrusted the school environment in their hands therefore anybody who uses the school environment or their platform to commit such offences against children they can also take a civil action against the person.”
According to him, the alleged rape cases reported at St. Louis and Kumasi Girls SHS, should be handed immediately to the police since it is above the remit of the authorities of the two schools to handle.
Mr. Bright Appiah also mentioned that anyone found culpable of the rape incident in the senior high schools after the police investigation should be made to face the full rigors of the law.
“When it comes to the substantive issues that has to do with the offence that has been committed within our criminal code, then it doesn’t lie with the Ghana Education Service to determine that they want to sanction the teachers for it. So what we are saying is that they should refer the matter to the police for proper investigation and whoever is found culpable should dealt it within the confines of the law.”
Earlier this week, the Ashanti Regional directorate of the GES interdicted two teachers, Douglas Adade and Matthew Asante-Darko for allegedly raping students in the St. Louis and Kumasi Girls Senior High Schools respectively.
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By: Jude Mensa Duncan/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
