Corrupt SHS students entering corrupt society with well-rehearsed experience – UG Prof

A professor at the University of Ghana Business School, Godfred Bokpin has accused some senior high school students of engaging in corruption at that level.

He explained that the students are threatening to beat invigilators who prevented them from cheating in the examinations.

This, he said, smacks of corruption on their part.

Prof Bokpin said these while speaking at an Imani-GIZ reform dialogue series on the theme: ‘Risk of corruption to entrepreneurial and business growth in Ghana’ held on Tuesday, November 23.

He further called on Ghanaians to accept that corruption has come to stay hence, measures should be taken to address the menace.

He stated that people don’t feel any particular guilt about the menace.

“Conscience-wise, people don’t feel any particular guilt by doing certain things because they know that we steal in proportion to access. So those who have access to more steal more, those who have access to less steal less. It is happening across the entire society.”

When asked by the moderator of the event who is also the Vice President of Imani Africa, Mr. Kofi Bentil whether he is calling for an acceptance of the practice due to the line of his analyses, he answered “We must acknowledge it, accept it and take steps to address it.

“Go to the secondary schools and see how some students are trying to beat up invigilators who were strict in preventing them from copying. Go to our pre-tertiary schools and see how politicians have messed up the control channel that practically disarms the school management from actually enforcing anything even if it is ethical.

These are the people who, very soon, will take over and you will see how that is feeding into the politics among students and the corruption at the tertiary level. As they are exiting, they are entering the bigger corrupt society with well-rehearsed experience.

“All the leaders we talk about never institutionalized any anti-corruption culture in this country and many of them to the extent that they were successful they assembled around themselves enough corrupt people to do exactly the opposite of what, perhaps they portray to society. You can get examples under Nkrumah, you can get examples under Rawlings and even President Mills.”