RISE Ghana has thrown its support behind Upper East Regional Minister Donatus Akamugri Atanga’s call for stricter enforcement of the ban on ethnic groupings in senior high schools, describing the move as critical to addressing rising indiscipline and student clashes in the region.
The Executive Director of RISE Ghana, Ahmed Awal Kariama, said weak enforcement of existing policies, rather than lack of rules, is fueling unrest in schools.
“In Ghana, we have a lot of strategies and policies, but the implementation continues to remain weak,” Mr. Kariama said on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East show. “GES has actually addressed issues like banning ethnic groups, but it is the enforcement that has been weak.”
He welcomed the regional minister’s recent remarks backing full enforcement of the policy.
“If our father, the Honorable Regional Minister, is calling for full enforcement, it will go a long way to address the issues,” Mr. Kariama said. “We should see ourselves first as one people, on one campus, in one country with a common destiny.”
Mr. Kariama warned that ethnic groupings in schools can deepen division and encourage impunity.
“When we disband these ethnic groups, which GES has actually done for some time now, it will go a long way to prevent the kind of culture where we tend to promote ethnic superiority and maybe see other people as inferior and justify crime based on ethnicity,” he said.
A rising wave of student indiscipline and clashes in senior high schools across the Upper East Region, he said, is also being driven by poor communication, unresolved tensions between students and communities, and weak response systems.
Source: A1 Radio | 101.1 Mhz | Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith | Bolgatanga
