The dismissal of eight students by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for allegedly insulting the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, some months ago has been criticized as “harsh and retrogressive” by the minority in parliament.
According to reports, the eight students are female Chiana Senior High School students from the Kassena Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.
The Minority disagrees with the punishment that has been handed out to the affected children, according to a statement signed by Peter Nortsu-Kotoe (MP), the Ranking Member on the Parliament’s Education Committee.
They argued that in the era when there is much advocacy and a renewed focus on increasing access to education, any decision that takes a child away from the classroom “can only be seen as an absolute drawback to this renewed focus and objective.”
“Whereas the Minority is against the misconduct of the eight students, and condemns same, we wish to state that the decision by the GES to dismiss them is harsh and retrogressive,” it added.
According to the minority’s interpretation of both Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Article 25 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, the eight pupils, like every other child in Ghana, should have the opportunity to attend school.
The statement has thus called on the GES to “review its decision and to ensure that the education of the victims is not truncated in this manner.”
The minority requested the GES in its statement to offer the eight pupils an alternative but corrective reprimand, although it did not provide an example.
Meanwhile, the statement’s final line made an appeal to the President to utilize his influence to release the students “as he did in 2023 when a group of some students misconducted themselves towards him.”