Provide practical election experience for students — ASSI Board

It is important for schools to provide children with practical experience in the electoral process to prepare them to exercise their voting rights when they grow up, the Board Chairman of Angel Specialist School International (ASSI), Edusei Derkyi, has said.

He explained that children were the future leaders, politicians and the electorate, and therefore, providing them with experience would put them in a better position to make informed decisions as adults.

Mr Derkyi said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) when pupils of the school, located at Tema Community 12, elected prefects and engaged in some sports exercises.

Experience

He stated that such civic education must be part of the core curriculum, adding, however, that schools could use it as part of their co-curricular activities to provide the children with the experience even though it was currently not part of their academic lessons.

"Our future politicians and electorate are these people, so if you begin early with them, they will grow up having the right mindset about elections.

"Before today, which is the election day, they pasted campaign posters, engaged their mates on their manifestos,  just like what happens on the national scene, they have campaign managers who canvassed for votes on their behalf. We want them to know what is good and what should not be done in politics," he said.

The ASSI Board Chairman called on the electorate and politicians to emulate the patriotism of the students who campaigned and voted without any incident or misunderstanding.

Election

"Election is not war; the children showed that; you will realise that after the voting, they jubilated with the winner even though they may not have voted for that person.

"The adults must learn from them. We all can't have the same ideas, but we just have to agree to accept the decision of the majority after the election and work together to develop Ghana,” he emphasised.

A teacher who doubled as the internal electoral commissioner, George Kwesi Dzakpasu, worked together with the Tema Metro Office of the Electoral Commission and guided the children to vote just as it was done in a national election.

He explained that 355 voters from the primary department cast their ballots to elect seven prefects from 28 contestants, while 200 students from the secondary department voted to elect seven prefects out of 21 contestants.  

Process

The school perfect-elect for the primary level, Ewurabena Darkua Ayiah, expressed gratitude to her mates and promised to fulfil the promises she made during the campaign period.

The school prefect-elect for the secondary level, Ella Owusu, gave the assurance that she would use the position to tackle challenges students were confronted with. - GNA