Accra, Dec. 3, GNA – Mrs Cynthia Aboni, Okaikwe North Municipal Director of Education, has called for heightened prevention of sexual harassment in schools than response to the cases.
She reaffirmed the municipality’s dedication for stakeholders engagement to create a future where schools were safe and conducive from sexual harassment.
Mrs Aboni said this on Tuesday at this year’s nationwide campaign against gender-based
violence in secondary schools in Accra.
The campaign forms part of the 16 days of Activism for Safer Schools, organised by the Ghana Education Service (GES) with support from the Ministry of Education, T-TEL and others.
The programme is on the theme: “Erase Sexual Harassment: Protect Physical and Digital Spaces.”
She said it behoves everyone to put in place measures to ensure that learners feel safe, protected and empowered to learn without distractions in their academic pursuits.
Mrs Aboni expressed concerns about the prevalence of sexual harassment in schools, calling for urgent attention to address the issue.
“We need a concerted effort to address these issue holistically. We need to confront the situation with all the urgency and compassion it deserves,” he said.
She said the government had developed a comprehensive framework of all forms of sexual abuse and child abuse, demonstrating institutional commitment to address the menace.
Mrs Aboni called for intensified road safety education in all schools, especially in the upcoming Christmas festivities to avoid deaths.
Mrs Gifty Sekyi-Bremansu, the Director in charge of Guidance and Counselling Unit of the Ghana Education Service, said government had developed a national policy on safe schools across the country.
The strategies, he stated, involved guidelines for reporting sexual harassment cases for urgent redress.
She said the Service among others organised an online mandatory sexual harassment programme for teachers and sensitisation activities for them.
Mrs Sekyi-Bremansu explained that the safe school programme over the period had implemented various interventions to prevent school-based violence, and ensure a secure, safe, and inclusive for effective teaching and learning.
She said with support from some development partners, the programme had transitioned from awareness creation to action through mobilising stakeholders to create a safe and inclusive future for our schools.
A study conducted by the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2022 revealed that 51 per cent of Ghanaian students were knowledgeable about sexual harassment, implying that the remaining 49 per cent lacked knowledge about it.
Mr Graham Acquah, Headmaster, Achimota Senior High School, called for the consideration of other forms of abuses as some males were aslo sexually abused.
He called for the need to amplify voices and challenged the norms to ensure that the learners were free from abuses.
GNA
Christian Akorlie