A former Vice-Chancellor(VC) of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey has kicked against calls for the boarding school system in Senior High Schools(SHSs) to be scrapped.
The suggestions to abolish boarding schools resurfaced after a viral video showed a final-year student physically assaulting a fellow student at Adisadel College.
They argue that eliminating boarding schools might help curb indiscipline among students.
Following the incident, the office of the Attorney General is prosecuting the matter in court.
However, in an interview, Prof. Aryeetey stated that the way to address the current problem should not involve scrapping the boarding school system.
He observed that managing boarding schools could be challenging and expensive, but he believes that abolishing them is not the solution to the issue at hand.
“The way to deal with the problem of today, will not be to scrap the boarding school system. I understand the boarding school system has become extremely expensive to manage.
“It is so because the state has decided that it wants to carry the burden. Boarding schools should be available to those who want and are willing to invest in them so scrapping boarding schools because the state cannot afford them cannot be the answer. Boarding school should be there for those who can afford it and those who to be assisted can take advantage of it. Those who cannot afford it can use day schools,” the former VC indicated.
Prof. Ernest Aryeetey charged the Ghana Education Service(GES) to give school boards the power to take disciplinary action to restore discipline in senior high schools.
“Today as a result of social media, students have access to phones, and so we can see it, but it doesn’t mean that bullying is new, it has always been there, let us not pretend. I worry that those who are better positioned to deal with it at our schools have been restrained by the rules and practices of the Ghana Education Service,” Prof. Aryeetey lamented.