19 students of Annor Adjaye SHS suspended for strange reasons

Information reaching the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG), an NGO championing the fight against all forms of abuse indicates that striking teachers and the school management have asked nearly 19 students of Annor Adjaye SHS located at Ezilinbo in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region to go home for strange reasons.

The punitive measure was taken because the students were seen in their dormitories during contact hours during the teachers’ ongoing strike.

Teachers have been on strike since July 4, 2022, while this decision was taken on July 7, 2022.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that the students have been studying on their own since July 4, without teachers attending to their needs as they prepare for the 2022 WASSCE examination.

Before the school issued the letter to the students, the victims had as usual gone to class to study on their own and reported to the school dormitory later to carry out other duties as required of them.

On the said day, the final year students got to class and realized the SHS1 students were getting ready for their end-of-semester examination, which required the SHS1 students to use the Seniors Block close to the school’s assembly hall. This block occupies final-year students during normal school hours.

The presence of the SHS1 students, and the impending end-of-semester examination, meant the final-year students would not be able to use the facility.

Some final year students went to the school canteen, while others returned to the school dormitory to enable the SHS1 students to concentrate and write their examinations.

However, some teachers followed the students to the dormitory, which compelled students to run away.

Those who were convinced their teachers meant good by following them were summoned and later given letters to go on two weeks suspension.

About 19 students were asked to bring out their bags, tranks, and chop boxes.

They were later parked into the school bus to be driven to the main junction without any information to their parents about the decision by the school per our sources.

Students were asked to get down halfway through the journey and were left stranded. The students have since complained about the treatment meted to them without the school authorities hearing their side of the story.

The Ghana Education Service prior to this event had cautioned students to obey school rules or face stiffer sanctions. It directed authorities to report students who smoke or engage in any criminal activity to the police or deboardenised those who deserve it among others.

Per the letter issued by the management of the school, the final year students will be deboardenised after serving the two weeks suspension.

The letter issued and signed by Mr. Francis Essel, headteacher of the school, reads;

“I write to inform you that your ward……has been suspended for two weeks with immediate effect. He is to stay with you in the house for two weeks, after which he will be made a day student.

“The decision by management is a result of him staying in the dormitory during classes hours.”

You are to offer him pieces of advice that will discourage him from such behaviour within the period of his stay with you

In a related development, the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) which broke the news about the dehumanising treatment meted out to students of the same institution, has written to the Ghana Education Service to furnish it with proof of decisions and sanctions against the teachers who flogged students mercilessly in May 2022.

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) has conveyed its wishes in a letter requesting the Ghana Education Service (GES) to part with the full proof of information on the outcomes of the investigation it has conducted backed by the details of sanctions meted out to the 7 teachers who mercilessly flogged and inflicted cane wounds on 19 final year students of the Annor Adjaye Senior High School in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region of Ghana on Sunday, May 8, 2022.

The HRRG further looks forward to a swift response from the GES in the above matters which it believes demand more attention at the school, district, regional, and national levels compared to the current issue and the action taken by the school.