A father of five girls has expressed concern about the apparent lack of formal safeguarding training for teachers, saying it raises serious questions about how students are protected in schools.
Francis Deamenu said parents entrusted their children to teachers to provide education and help shape their character, but that responsibility must also include ensuring their safety.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, October 20, amid allegations of sexual abuse involving female students at Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), he said parents were deeply worried about what might be happening to their children while they were at school.
“I feel highly embarrassed because looking at the kids that we have sent there, we don’t actually know what is happening there,” he said.
Mr Deamenu said comments during the programme suggesting that teachers had not received formal training in safeguarding students highlighted a major challenge for parents and the education system.
“It is a very serious headache,” he said, adding that parents had a shared responsibility to ensure their children were protected.
He said the relationship between parents and teachers depended on trust, with families expecting schools to provide formal education while working alongside parents in the moral upbringing of their children.
“We have entrusted them [teachers] with the kids that are our properties. We just want them to give them a formal education so that the moral aspect will also play our role. They also play their role,” he said.
His comments come amid investigations into allegations of sexual abuse involving female students at Obuasi SHTS. The school’s headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, has been interdicted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and arrested by the Ghana Police Service as investigations continue following a JoyNews investigation by investigative correspondent Manasseh Azure Awuni.
The allegations have renewed public concern about student safety, the responsibility of school authorities to protect children and the systems in place to prevent and respond to abuse.
Mr Deamenu’s concerns underscore the importance of equipping teachers with appropriate safeguarding knowledge and clear procedures for identifying, reporting and responding to suspected abuse. The allegations against the headmaster remain subject to investigation.