Report ‘criminal’ students to police for prosecution – GES tells schools

Management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has urged “school authorities to report any criminal acts of students to the Ghana Police Service (GPS) for investigations and subsequent prosecution.”

The directive comes after the GES said that some final-year students [JHS 3 and SHS 3] refuse to attend school and classes when they have been registered for their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) respectively.

According to the service, it has come to their attention that these truant students engage in undesirable acts such as dealing in drugs, bullying, wearing unprescribed attire, use of mobile phones on school campuses and blatant disregard for school rules and regulations.

These acts, the GES considers as “a major misconduct by students” and therefore, encouraged authorities to report criminal acts by students to the police for further action.

The Director-General of the service, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, in a signed statement issued on Thursday, June 9, declared that “students under police investigation during the period of BECE and WASSCE Examinations will be allowed to write their papers under police escort.”

Prof. Amankwa also said that recalcitrant students can also face sanctions such as deboardinization, writing exams under police/parental escort and refusal by WAEC to admit them at the exam centres to write their papers.