The Ghana Education Service (GES) has dismissed eight female students of Chiana Senior High School(SHS) in the Kassena-Nankana West District for making disparaging remarks about President Akufo-Addo.
The students were seen in a viral video denigrating the President and his Free Senior High School policy last year.
Following the release of the video, the management of GES condemned the act and apologized to the President on behalf of the students, school, and members of the public.
They also stated that the necessary action would be taken on the issue.
The dismissal comes after extensive investigations into the conduct of the students.
Prior to the dismissal, the students had been on suspension for their misconduct.
In a letter dated November 29, 2022, the Director General of the GES, Dr. Eric Nkansah, directed the dismissal of all eight students from the school.
The letter that was addressed to the parents of the students described their conduct as “very undesirable and contrary to the acceptable standards of conduct generally required of any student in our Educational system in Ghana.”
It further encouraged the students to use their dismissal as a major turning point in their lives to bring the desired change in their behavior and attitude toward life.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah had advised against the GES decision.
He argued that authorities should be interested in correcting abnormalities exhibited by children.
According to him, “the system of correcting that behavior is not a kind of system that should bring victimization”.
“It is not a kind of system that should tarnish the image of the children, but it should be the system that will reform them and then rehabilitate them so that they can see things from the normal perspective in terms of how the state expects children will behave at the particular age and all that,” Mr. Appiah explained.
Following the GES dismissal order, the affected students made themselves available in another video viral circulating in the media in which they plead for forgiveness. They said they are in their final year of the academic stage they have reached, thus the dismissal turns the page on their careers the wrong way and could ruin their lives.