Bolga SHS student drills Bible to hide mobile phone

A student at the Bolgatanga Senior High School (Big Boss) has resorted to a copy of the Bible to conceal his mobile phone from school authorities.

The student drilled a big hole through the inner pages of the Bible and buried a mobile phone in it to outwit the authorities.

Teachers discovered the black Samsung cell phone hidden deep inside the unlikely hiding-spot during a routine dormitory inspection at the premier school in the Upper East region.

A resident, Barnabas Abariga, questioned aloud as he seethed with anger: “How can a student incur God’s wrath because he wanted to disobey his school? God have mercy on this generation”.

The student, some residents say, might have been inspired by the popular saying “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book” to conceal the phone from his teachers. And he chose a ‘holy book’.

It is not clear yet who the student is as the Headmaster of the school, Afelibiek Ababu, appeared unwilling to speak to the press when contacted after the matter came up some months ago.

Ghana is torn in two over the use of cellular phones on campus by second-cycle students, with the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, stirring up mixed reactions late in 2017 after she announced senior high school boarders would be provided with mobile devices “not for fun” but “as learning aids”.

Whilst the debate looks far from won by either side, boarders across the country keep upgrading ways of using phones on campus and outsmarted school authorities keep grabbing them at last.

Awe SHS students use illegal connections to charge phones

Only a few weeks ago, teachers at the Awe Senior High Technical School (AWESCO), a popular school at Navrongo, nosed out several spots inside some dormitories where students were drawing power illegally to charge mobile phones.

Pictures taken of the findings found their way out of the campus days later, sparking a wave of fears such dormitory power thefts could sooner or later ignite electrical explosions and, consequently, fire outbreaks.

“Illegal connection is a major cause of fire outbreaks in the schools. These students are not electricians. They cut and join wires dangerously. With time, it will explode, causing fire outbreak. The best thing is that the region should take a stand on the use of mobile telephones,” a worried teacher at the school told Starr News anonymously.

GES boss too shocked to speak

The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Patricia Ayiko, was left in utter disbelief after her first encounter in May, this year, with pictures of the vandalised copy of the Bible and illegal connection points at dormitories.

Such was the depth of her shock that the soon-to-retire Regional Director, who is well known for talking freely with the press, deferred what to say when the media met with her on the findings. The discoveries come at a time the Ghana Education Service (GES) says it is stepping up the tempo of its war against student indiscipline, particularly campus unrests, in the region.

NAVASCO and the Mother of all riots

No fewer than 14 cases of student riots were recorded in the region between 2014 and 2016 alone, according to the National Peace Council (NPC) who has joined forces with the GES to end violence in senior high schools.

As they came one after the other, about each of the riots seen in times past in the region was generally referred to as the “mother” of student demonstrations because of the various depths of havoc wrecked.

But some still argue that the one that rocked the Navrongo Senior High School (NAVASCO) some time ago is beyond the so-called “mother” of student disturbances. They call it the “ancestor” of student riots.

A senior housemaster, shortly before that very unrest began, had just returned home too fatigued to do anything other than to take his supper and to retire to bed. He was at the dining table, his wife by him, when he felt a growing vibration, like the sound of a thousand feet, drumming close and then closer to his house.

He lifted the curtains. In view was a scary picture of angry students marching towards his house with sweaty bare chests. He fled at once with renewed energy, his wife close behind him in an unrehearsed race.

Having just washed his hand and was about to give all his attention to the food when he heard the sound, he took off with his hand still wet. On arrival, the angry students sat around his dining table, devoured the food on his behalf and left.

The number of students arrested in that riot, according to an old student now a police prosecutor, was not only too overwhelming to count at the time but also has remained the region's all-time high.