Dismissal of 8 Chiana students: We need discipline in our schools – Edu Watch backs govt

Kofi Asare, the executive director of the education think tank, Africa Education Watch (Edu Watch), has backed the decision of the government to sack the 8 Chiana Senior High School students who were captured in a viral video insulting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to him, the behaviour of the 8 female students was appalling and cannot go unpunished, citinewroom.com reports.

He added that students must be punished to ensure that the current indiscipline being seen in schools across the country is curbed.

“Teachers and school managers who have the responsibility of running Basic schools must run them effectively and deliver to generate a quality outcome and so when such rules are broken by students, the sanctions must apply so that we don’t create a situation that our schools become a den of indiscipline.

“And so I have no reason not to support the decision to sanction the students for participating in that despicable act of misconduct. I think that we shouldn’t encourage that behaviour at all in our schools,” he is quoted to have said in an interview on Citi Prime News.

He added that if the students and their parents think the dismissal is unfair they should appeal the decision of government.

The 8 students were sighted in a video in November 2022 on social media, abusing the president verbally for the economic hardship in the country.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) on Wednesday, January 11, 2022, approved the dismissal of the 8 students after it was recommended by their school.

Portions of a statement by GES read, “Management of Ghana Education Service (GES) has given approval for the dismissal of eight students with immediate effect to serve as deterrence to other students”.

The statement also described the act of the dismissed students as unacceptable and an abuse of the codes of conduct in Ghana’s educational system.

IB/