Education Ministry reverses decision on Adisadel student

The Adisadel College bully is expected to be hauled before a district court in Cape Coast today following his arrest and the subsequent bail granted him.

This follows the order by the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, for the third-year student to be investigated for possible prosecution.

A Principal State Attorney in the Central Region, Vincent Nyinaku, said Bobby is 17 years old, and would be treated as a juvenile.

The bully, widely known on the school premises as Bobby, choked a fellow third-year student in the Quaque House dormitory as he held him by the neck from the back before hitting the victim’s face against the edge of a bed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has reversed the suspension handed by the school to Kelvin Ofori, the victim, pending conclusive investigations.

The ministry has ordered that Ofori, who has since received medical examination and treatment at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, should be allowed to stay in school and write the West African Senior Secondary School Examination (WASSCE).

Counselling support

The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) have, in the meantime, set up a team of psycho-social counsellors to support all the students involved psychologically.

A Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, who briefed the press after meeting with the school’s management and the student body, said at any point in time, there were about 1.3 million students being catered for in the schools, and the job could be overwhelming for school management teams.

He, however, asked school managements across the country to put in stringent systems of supervision to improve discipline.

The minister said the ministry and the GES would not do anything to obstruct investigations by the security agencies and the Attorney-General's office so the law could take its course.

He said there were laws that governed juvenile misbehaviour, and the ministry was sure that the Attorney-General’s office would apply them to the letter.

Rev. Fordjour said the ministry would not countenance acts of bullying in schools, and asked senior high school students to desist from all forms of bullying.

He said the policy of no mobile phones in schools was also one of the measures to protect them and to give them an environment to learn.

Earlier in a meeting with the students, the minister urged them to be disciplined and to desist from acts of indiscipline that could derail their academic development.

The Assistant Head Prefect of the school, Ishmael Asuafuah-Dankwa, on behalf of the students, pledged to be of good behaviour.