Discipline has broken down in Senior High Schools due to double-track system — Peter Nortsu Kotoe

The Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu Kotoe has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to be up and doing to ensure students can be disciplined in Senior High Schools.

Sharing his view on the bullying incident in Adisadel College, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Akatsi North opined that such incidents are happening because discipline has broken down in schools.

In his view, there is indiscipline because the large population and double-track system run in schools have made it impossible for school authorities to keep track of students and keep them in check.

“…Right now, it is becoming difficult for school authorities including Housemasters and Guidance & Counselling instructors to know the students, especially in the double-track schools. Because the students come, eight weeks they are gone. They go and learn their textbooks and come back so the teachers are not able to know them very well,” Peter Nortsu Kotoe argued in an interview with Starr FM.

He continued, “Then again, the large population in our secondary schools especially the Grade 1 schools as we call them. They have large numbers of students, 3500 – 5000 students, and I don’t know how those schools’ authorities can know all of them. So, until we make sure that children are all in school at the same time for a long period for the teachers to study them and know their characters it will be difficult for them to know. So, discipline is breaking down and we are calling on the government or GES especially to come out with new modalities so that children can be disciplined at the school level.”

Meanwhile, the mother of the victim of the Adisadel College bullying incident, Madam Margaret Afari has called on the school to overturn the suspension of her ward.

“I’m pleading with the authorities in charge. He was the one who was hurt. They should look again at the sanctions and allow him to stay in the school and write the examination. I don’t want to drag this matter,” the mother of the victim told Daily Graphic.