The growing incidents of indiscipline in some Senior High Schools (SHSs) have become too serious for the nation to continue treating them as ordinary school disturbances. Students assaulting teachers, destroying school property, engaging in examination malpractice and turning disagreements into violent confrontations are not merely disciplinary problems. They are warning signs about the kind of citizens our educational system is producing.
The recent disturbances at Okuapeman and Mount Sinai Senior High Schools in the Eastern Region, which resulted in violence and damage to school property should, therefore, serve as a wake-up call to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The Chronicle is particularly worried because these incidents are happening at a time when the State is committing enormous resources to secondary education. The 2026 Budget provided GH¢4.2 billion for Free Senior High School. This is taxpayers’ money and represents a major national investment in the future of the country’s young people.
Free SHS was introduced to expand access to secondary education and reduce the financial burden on families. It was never intended to create a generation of young people who believe that entitlement comes without responsibility.
Education must go beyond passing examinations. A student may obtain excellent grades, but if that student cannot respect authority, tolerate disagreement, control his or her emotions or resolve conflicts peacefully, then something important has been missed. We, therefore, find the current spate of indiscipline deeply troubling.
Indeed, the Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has raised the question of whether corporal punishment should be reconsidered as part of the disciplinary system in second-cycle institutions. We believe this debate deserves serious national attention.
We must, however, be clear: the restoration of corporal punishment alone will not cure indiscipline in our schools. Discipline requires a comprehensive system in which students know the rules, teachers are supported to enforce them, parents cooperate with school authorities and serious misconduct attracts prompt and proportionate sanctions.
The era when teachers were expected to maintain discipline without adequate institutional support cannot continue. At the same time, we do not believe that every act of student misconduct should be explained away as the product of social media, peer pressure, poverty or parental influence. Those factors may contribute to behaviour, but ultimately, students must be held responsible for their actions.
Parents and Guardians must also stop shielding their children from the consequences of wrongdoing. It is counter-productive for parents to challenge school authorities whenever their wards are disciplined for legitimate breaches of school rules. Such conduct undermines the authority of teachers and makes the task of maintaining order unnecessarily difficult.
The schools, for their part, must also ensure that discipline is administered fairly. Students should not be subjected to arbitrary or abusive treatment. Firmness and fairness must go together. What happened at Okuapeman and other schools must not become the new normal.
Where students assault teachers, vandalise school property or engage in other serious criminal conduct, the appropriate authorities must act. Where offences warrant police investigation and prosecution, the law must take its course. School disciplinary processes and the criminal justice system should not be confused, but neither should serious wrongdoing be swept under the carpet in the name of protecting students.
We are equally opposed to the culture of impunity that allows some students to believe that nothing serious will happen after violent misconduct. The State must invest in counselling, mentorship and character development alongside academic instruction. But investment in education must also come with expectations of responsible behaviour.
Our SHSs are training grounds for the future leaders, professionals, workers and citizens of this country. If we allow indiscipline to flourish there, the consequences will eventually be felt far beyond the school gates.
The Chronicle, therefore, calls on the Ministry of Education and the GES to undertake a comprehensive review of discipline in our second-cycle institutions and enforce the rules without fear or favour.
Parents must play their part. Teachers must be protected. School authorities must be empowered. Students must understand their rights, but equally their responsibilities. Ghana does not merely need educated young people. We need disciplined, responsible and morally upright citizens.
Free SHS can open the doors of the classroom, but only discipline, character and responsibility can prepare our young people for the demands of nation-building. The time to restore discipline in our Senior High Schools is now!
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