The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has called for independent safeguarding checks in all senior high schools across Ghana following sexual assault allegations involving the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS).
He said the country should move beyond investigating reported cases of sexual abuse and establish a system that allows students to confidentially report both past and ongoing abuse without fear of victimisation.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, October 19, during a discussion on the Obuasi SHTS case, Mr Asare said investigating only known cases would leave many victims out because some incidents had never been reported.
Responding to calls for the authorities to use the revelations surrounding the school to investigate sexual assault cases across all secondary schools and punish perpetrators, he said a broader, system-wide approach was needed.
“Well, not every case, because many are not yet cases. They haven’t yet become cases because they haven’t been reported,” he said.
He proposed setting up independent teams to visit every senior high school, assure students of confidentiality and protection, and invite those who had experienced abuse to share their accounts.
“And so what we should do is that we should do a system-wide mobilisation. We should get a team of external people, not from the GES, to go to every senior high school, sit and then provide assurance of confidentiality and protection,” he said.
The teams, he added, should allow students who had experienced abuse in the past or were experiencing it at the time to volunteer information.
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Mr Asare said every senior high school should be screened for safeguarding concerns immediately, arguing that the education authorities needed to take preventive action rather than respond only after allegations emerged.
“In every senior high school, we should screen every senior high school for safeguarding immediately,” he said.
He criticised what he described as the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) tendency to respond to problems after they had occurred, saying this approach was inadequate for protecting students from sexual abuse.
“The GES is always playing. They are always chasing after shadows,” he said.
He added: “You can’t always be reactive if you want to ensure and enforce safeguarding in our schools.”
According to him, the allegations at Obuasi SHTS should serve as a catalyst for a nationwide review of the measures in place to protect students.
Mr Asare also raised concerns about the lack of information in schools on how students can report sexual harassment and abuse.
He said an evaluation conducted by Africa Education Watch of the GES sexual harassment policy, whose report was launched about five or six months earlier, found that schools lacked information, education and communication materials explaining how students could report sexual harassment.
“Now, when we at EduWatch did our evaluation of the GES sexual harassment policy and launched the report five or six months ago, we found that in our schools there were no IEC materials in relation to how to even report sexual harassment,” he said.
He said many students did not know about existing reporting channels, including the Ministry of Gender’s toll-free hotline.
“Now, many students in our secondary schools have no idea about, for instance, 0800 800 800, which is the hotline for the Ministry of Gender’s sexual abuse hotline. They don’t have it,” he said.
Mr Asare called for the immediate and widespread publication of reporting contacts throughout schools so that students could access help without having to rely solely on teachers, headmasters or other school staff.
He said students should be able to report abuse directly to independent support services, particularly in situations where school personnel might be implicated in the alleged wrongdoing or might fail to act.
The Africa Education Watch executive director urged the relevant authorities to make students aware of the reporting channels available to them.
He cited the Ministry of Gender’s toll-free numbers, 0800 800 800 and 0800 900 900, as well as the United Nations Population Fund’s SMS reporting channel, 8020.
He said the contact details should be displayed prominently across school premises so that students could report harassment or abuse and seek assistance when necessary.
“These must be published in every corner of our schools,” he said.
Mr Asare said that relying entirely on school authorities to respond to allegations was not enough, particularly when those expected to protect students might themselves be implicated or could help conceal abuse.
“So that we don’t rely on the school system, the teachers, the headmasters and the staff there and assume that they will always act in accordance with the duty of care they owe learners, especially when in most of these cases they are other perpetrators or they are abettors,” he added.
His comments follow a JoyNews investigation by Manasseh Azure Awuni, which revealed that municipal authorities, education officials and other influential figures had received reports concerning alleged sexual abuse by the Obuasi SHTS headmaster months before his suspension.