GES asked to tighten security in schools

Chief Inspector Joseph Nacoja of the Volta Regional Police Command on Tuesday called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to tighten security at basic and second cycle schools across the country.

He said this has become necessary following increasing reports of robbery, gay and lesbian activities in the schools.

Mr Nacoja was speaking at a capacity building workshop for 60 security officers drawn from basic and second cycle schools in the Ho Municipal Area.

The training is under the auspices of the Municipal Education Directorate with support from the Ghana Police Service.

There have been unconfirmed reports of gay and lesbian activities in some second cycle institutions in the municipal area recently.

Mawuli School in Ho is said to be investigating some students for allegedly robbing tutors at the school.

Also several Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centres of schools in the municipality have been broken into.

Mr Nacoja said gay and lesbian activities were security issues and asked GES to institute measures at address the challenge.

He asked schools to engage energetic and intelligent persons as security officers and train them regularly so they could protect students against all security threats including terrorist attacks.

Mr Nacoja urged school authorities to respect security officers and allow them to work without ‘unnecessary’ interruptions.

“Authorities must allow security officers to check their cars at the gate. It is a sign of good leadership and will empower security persons to thoroughly check every vehicle at the gate,” he said.

Mr Dickson Kofi Pi-Bansah, Head of Human Resource and Development, Ho Municipal Education Directorate, said his outfit was not happy about the burglary of ICT centres in the Municipality and charged the security officers to help protect the schools.

He said the training had been institutionalised and called for support from individuals and corporate institutions as well as Parent Teacher Associations.

The participants expressed gratitude to GES for the training and reiterated their commitment to the protection of schools.