Instil discipline but don't violate rights - Justice Brobbey advises teachers

A Supreme Court Judge, Justice Stephen Allan Brobbey, has urged heads of academic to be mindful of human rights laws when dealing with their students to avoid being sued.

He explained that the Constitution provides that any person of 18 years is an adult and since most students in Senior High Schools (SHS) are about that age, school authorities should be careful in handling them to prevent violations of the law.

Justice Brobbey was addressing the 32nd Annual National Conference of the Association of Catholic Heads of Higher Institutions (ACHHI) at Akwadum, near Koforidua on Thursday.

He said times had changed and the probability of heads being sent to court for breach of the constitution was not far-fetched.

Buttressing that point, Justice Brobbey cited a publication in a private daily last week where a student of the Achimota SHS had sued the head teacher at a high court to restrain the school from forcing her to have her hair cut.

He said by law, that student is right, but it is an indication of the breakdown of the Ghanaian societal values and norms that promote respect for authority and the elderly, explaining that, the student because was under-age, her mother sued on her behalf.

Justice Brobbey who was speaking on the theme: “Child Rights, the Youth and Morality, Challenges to the Catholic Educator,” said notwithstanding the laws, students must be trained and nurtured to be fit in the society and that was a responsibility of head teachers.

He said without disregard to the laws, heads of institutions, including Catholic institutions, should not allow vices to thrive in the schools and mentioned homosexuality, lesbianism, bad dressing and behavior among others, as vices.

Justice Brobbey said vices when not checked in schools could become a canker in the society and very difficult to uproot.

Dr Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi, the Eastern Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, said moral education was very important and needed to be infused into the formal curricula.

He said discipline and patriotic spirit were very much imperative to the socio economic development and students must be taught to have a high reputation and the penchant to always chose what is right over wrong.

Dr Apea-Kubi, therefore, pledged the support of the government in collaborating with stakeholders such as the Church, particularly the Catholic Bishop’s Conference, in addressing issues about education and instilling discipline and morals in the young generation.