Consider regulating mobile phone use in SHSs – Ken Ashigbey to GES

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber, Ken Ashigbey, says he still stands by his proposition that the use of mobile phone is crucial in Senior High Schools.

For him, beyond the excesses, proper regulation of its usage in schools will advance academic work of students.

“I’ll advocate that we should definitely get them into our schools but there should be rules…” he re-echoed in an interview with sit-in host Akwasi Nsiah on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.

His comment comes on the heels of the expulsion of seven students from Ejisuman boarding facility by authorities after they were deemed to have engaged in activities that tarnished the school’s image.

The six are all final year students. They are accused of using a mobile phone – which is prohibited in basic and high schools – to “intentionally upload a video on social media where unprintable words that border on sex were spewed out.”

The development has reignited the conversation on the ban of mobile phones in second-cycle institutions.

But Mr. Ken Ashigbey, a strong proponent of mobile phone use in SHSs has disputed claims that its risky to allow students access to mobile phones, following the scandal.

“We should really not be putting the blame on mobile phones. This is not the cause of mobile phones. It means it’s something that they do in real terms that they’ve taken to the virtual world. The only thing we can say about the mobile phone in this case is it has made us all see what it is that they have been doing; the things that they’ve been saying. It’s rather the moral fibre of these children, what is it that we’re teaching them from our homes.”