Islamic SHS chaos: Asenso-Boakye charges GES to probe staff involvement

Member of Parliament for Bantama, Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye has charged the Ghana Education Service to, as a matter of urgency, conduct a full-scale investigation into the disturbances that occurred at the Islamic Senior High School at Ampabame in the Bantama Constituency.

He further tasked the service to probe the allegations that some members of management and teaching staff incited the students to embark on the demonstration and to block the portion of the road in front of the school.

According to Mr. Asenso-Boakye "…right from that day and up till now, there is an allegation that the students were incited by one or two members of management and teaching staff to demonstrate. We shouldn’t countenance that, we shouldn’t encourage that; we shouldn’t take the developmental challenges in the country to create confusion.

"That is not acceptable. And it is on that note that I want to urge the Ghana Education Service to conduct a full-scale investigation into this allegation so that it would guide possible future occurrences of this nature- so that whenever there is a problem in any school, students would not be incited to go on demonstration.”

He is of the view that if any member of management or teacher found to be involved in inciting the students to embark on the demonstration is not punished, it would motivate other schools with challenges to replicate what the students of Islamic SHS did.

The Works and Housing Minister made the call while speaking to the press at the Islamic Senior High School after a meeting with management, staff, and students of the school on Friday, June 17, 2022.

As the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye visited the school to get firsthand information on Monday’s disturbances that led to the hospitalisation of some of the students due to an approach employed by police personnel to disperse the agitated students. His visit was also to reason with the management on the best ways to curtail the recurrence of such an incident.

The Minister also praised the IGP for the visit to the school on the day of the incident, and the swift action taken against some leading figures in the Police Service in the Ashanti Region. He called on the IGP to cause the service to fast-track investigations into the alleged police brutalities.

Hon. Asenso-Boakye advised the students not to use demonstration as means to getting their grievances attended to, but to channel them through their teachers, who would in turn, through the management, convey them to the appropriate quarters for better solutions.

The MP disclosed that there are other challenges he had been briefed on during his visit to the school, citing a fuel station close to the school which has serious safety implications for the school.

He promised to meet the authorities of the National Petroleum Authority to ascertain why they approved that location for the establishment of the fuel station, and to decide on how the station could be moved from the current location as it is a possible danger to the entire Islamic Senior High School Community.

Speaking on the demand for speed ramps in front of the school, the reason the students blocked the road on Monday, Hon. Francis Asenso-Boakye announced that it was already in the government’s plans to construct the ramps, adding that very soon, people would see the Islamic SHS ones and others being constructed to drastically reduce the number of accidents occurring on the roads due to the lack of speed ramps.

Mr. Asenso-Boakye again advised the students to be more concerned about their studies and must not allow any adult to lure them into any activity that is unlawful and can plunge them into trouble.