The caretaker Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cecilia Dapaah, has admonished teachers and headteachers of basic schools to make pupils clean their classrooms and their washrooms.
She made the statement when she visited some schools in the Ashanti Region as part of efforts to ensure that caterers under the school feeding programme have indeed resumed services after weeks of withdrawing their services due to government’s inability to pay them.
During her visit to one of the schools, State Experimental School in Kumasi, the Minister expressed disappointment at the teachers after she learned through interaction with them that the washrooms and classrooms of the school are being cleaned by janitors and not the pupils.
Although some teachers raised concerns about the issue of child abuse, the Minister insisted that involving pupils in cleaning around school premises will help instil discipline in them.
“Don’t change our culture. Our children socioculturally should help around the house (household chores). Children should be trained to be disciplined and responsible. It’s a joy to see children helping around the house or around a school. We are from Garrison primary, they were holding their bins to go and empty the bins and you’re calling that child abuse? I am very disappointed in you,” Madam Cecilia Dapaah stated.