Human Rights Reporters Ghana (NGO)

Month: May 2022

  • GES to punish Annor-Adjaye SHS Teachers for mercilessly caning students

    GES to punish Annor-Adjaye SHS Teachers for mercilessly caning students

    On Sunday 8th May 2022, The Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) broke the news about the unwarranted abuse and merciless caning of students by some seven (7) teachers of the Annor Adjaye SHS.

    The entire nation reacted to the maltreatment as uncalled-for. New development and information available to the HRRG is that the visit by officers of the Western Regional Education office two days after the report is yielding positive results.

    The Western Regional Education Director, Felicia Okai, has disclosed that teachers who inflicted cane wounds on students of Annor Adjaye Senior High School would be punished.

    This piece of news has been welcomed by the Chief Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana, Mr. Joseph Wemakor. In an interview with The Ghana Education News, he indicated that, when the HRRG received the news of the abuse via a distress chat message, it was alarmed, and after confirming the story the organization took the necessary steps to put it out in the public domain for the needed action to be taken by those in authority.

    “I am elated that our sacrifices towards ensuring a society where no one violates the rights of another and children are not abused is yielding results. We shall continue to follow the story to its conclusion however, we call on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure that they make their final decision on the teachers found culpable in the Annor Adjaye SHS student abuse is made public. This will build trust and keep stakeholders informed” Mr. Wemakor added.

    From the onset, some of the teachers who were involved in the barbaric act called the publication of the HRRG a bluff, however, the story soon found it way to top TV stations in the country (Onua TV, Angel TV) including Radio Stations (Angel FM, Boss FM, and others) before spreading across other affiliate stations of these media houses and every effort by the HRRG to ensure the story gets to the GES and the Ghana police service has yielded positive result and feedback.

    There was an attempt to silence students and compel them to write an apology letter to the teachers however, the HRRG did not see the necessity of this and believed such a move will mess up the issue and make the students look guilty, the leadership of the HRRG advised that no such letter should be written not as a sign of disrespect but to preserve the sanctity of the substantive matters that need to be addressed.

    The Western Regional Education Director while commenting on the videos and pictures that accompanied the HRRG publication said the educators had no right to beat the students mercilessly in the name of instilling discipline in them.

    The Ghana Education Service (GES) in 2017 banned the use of canes and all forms of corporal punishment in schools to present such acts including torture and bullying, she indicated.

    Madam Felicia Okai’s comments followed widespread reports that teachers numbering about seven from the Annor Adjaye SHS in the Jomoro Municipality have ‘brutally caned’ some 19 final-year students for being late to a Sunday Morning Service.

    “The fact that they have broken the laws, there would be repercussions for that. They had no right to treat the children like that. Be assured that they would be duly punished”, she said while granting an interview on the matter on Angel FM’s Anopa Bofo Morning Show on Tuesday, May 10.

    She confirmed the absence of the School’s Headmaster at the time of the incident as reported by the Human Rights Reporters Ghana in its breaking story released on Sunday, May 8, 2022 to all media houses.

    She stressed that “we have banned corporal punishment in schools and the law is still in force. We send a gentle reminder every term to the schools.”

    The Western Regional Education Director indicated that “we sent our Guidance and Counselling Coordinator and two directors in Jomoro and Axim to go and find out what happened as soon as we were notified of the incident.”

    Madam Okai, who was unhappy about the development, questioned if the teachers would subject their children to such brutality.

    “When I saw the pictures of the body wounds, I asked if they would beat their own children like that. Because if we want students to attend church, you don’t do so with canes… The matter has ‘disgusted’ everyone. They shouldn’t even have canes in the schools.”

    The feedback “GES to punish Annor Adjaye SHS Teachers who mercilessly caned students” is a piece of welcomed news however we stress again that the outcome should be made known to the public.

    Punishing culprits of the Annor-Adjaye SHS is just one way of dealing with the challenge and is more of a reactive approach rather than a proactive approach.

    Going forward, the HRRG believes that it is important that, the GES and all stakeholders start to think of how to help teachers to stop the use of canes and to move canes out of the classrooms, and schools.

    More training workshops with experts as facilitators have become more important if the spirit and letter of the policy is to be felt and implemented in our schools with teachers and heads of schools playing critical leadership roles.

    Source: Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG).

  • Heartbreaking Video:Gross Abuse as Annor Adjaye SHS Teachers cane students to pulp-HRRG

    Heartbreaking Video:Gross Abuse as Annor Adjaye SHS Teachers cane students to pulp-HRRG

    The Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) received a distress message showing severe body harm inflicted on students by teachers of Annor Adjaye Senior High School, a public Senior High School (SHS) located in the Jomoro Municipality, the Southwestern part of the Western Region of Ghana.

    The students heard an alarm that some teachers were coming, but since they were already dressing up for church service, they decided to remain in the dormitory and rather wait for the teachers while some others dashed out.

    Teachers, per information gathered by the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) numbering about seven (7) went to the school dormitory where the students were getting dressed up for the regular service.

    Upon arrival, no amount of explanation they gave was taken. The students were directed to kneel down which was followed by the severe caning which has resulted to serious visible damage to the body of the students.

    The offence for which the students were brutally caned and hurt by the teachers was because they were getting late for the Sunday morning service. This abuse hinges on the students’ right to freedom of worship and religion and at the same time on the need to obey school rules as students, however, the magnitude of the corporal punishment is uncalled-for. The offence of the students gathered so far points to being late for the Sunday morning church service.

    The students were further asked to go and weed a piece of land belonging to an Agric Institution after the church service.

    It is alleged that the school’s head of the English department, the Assistant Head of academics, and one Senior Housemaster were part of those who went on the canning spree.

    Gross Abuse as Annor Adjaye SHS Teachers Cane students to pulp and breaks the GES Code of Corporal Punishment

    Although the GES has banned corporal punishment in schools since 2017, teachers do not seem ready to stop the use of canes and this can be said to be the case in Annor Adjaye Senior High School.

    As a result of the continuous abuse on the part of some teachers at the basic and senior high schools, in 2017, the Ghana Education Services officially banned all forms of corporal punishment of children in schools in Ghana as part of efforts aimed at promoting a safe and protective learning environment for children. 

    The Ghana Education service’s directive was issued in January 2019 that a Positive Discipline Toolkit which gives alternatives to corporal punishments is adopted by all teachers. Our Country is one of the very many other countries that incorporated corporal punishment in its educational practices, as a procedure of penalizing and remedial technique. Of the many procedures of corporal punishment, caning was prevalent in Ghanaian public and private basic and senior high schools, as a quick to administer a form of punishment. However, this was not used by the Annor Adjaye SHS Teachers.

    According to sources, the educators who are expected to observe the ban on caning policy of the Ghana Education Service decided to teach the students a Mother’s Day lesson.

    They virtually abused the students by excessively lashing them. Students who suffered the inhumane treatment number about nineteen (19) per our sources.

    Due to the inhumane treatment meted out to the students, marks from the canes can be visibly seen on their legs, arms, thighs, and their backs and blood clots are clearly visible on their bodies. The abuse happened in House 4 also known as Rev. Father Quarm House.

    The question is, should students be excessively beaten and abused to compel them to be part of a church service they were already preparing for?

    It is the improper use of authority and aggression. Is the intention to harm the only reasonable option for instilling discipline in students at Annor Adjaye Senior High School?

    The students alleged that the brute caning is a common practice in the School by the teachers due to the location of the school in a village and far from town

    Our efforts to reach the school authorities proved futile as the available school contact number could not help the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) to reach school authorities.

    However, the video evidence attached to this publication gives a clear indication of the rate of abuse meted out to the students by the teachers who should have known better and excised restrain and further deploy a human centered approach to dealing with the situation.

    We call on the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Police to take up this matter and ensure they get to the bottom of this and teachers found guilty of the act are dealt with accordingly

    No matter how grave the offence of this matter, the teachers who are alleged to have teamed up to abuse the second and final-year students over the compulsory religious gathering in school failed to make the right decisions.

    The SHS student abused by teachers on Mother’s Day is a bad move on such a day, and parents are already worried as their children make distress calls back home.

    Some harmed students are unable to sit or lie down. In the video attached, one can hear them complain of being assaulted by the teachers for being late for the early Sunday church service organized on campus.

    The students have not been able to lodge an official complaint to the headmaster, who was unavailable when the incident occurred.

    The students are planning to lodge an official complaint at the nearest police station.  They say their hopes of applying for recruitment into any of the security services seem to be dashed because the marks on their bodies may prevent them from passing the body check phase of the recruitment process.

    The Human Rights Reporters Ghana is alarmed by the action by the educators and is calling for immediate action by the Ghana Police and the Ghana Education Service.

    Watch the heartbreaking video below:

    https://youtu.be/5VIiXOSUqUY

    Source: Human Rights Reporters Ghana