Ghana Education Services (GES) recently banned all political activism in second cycle schools, including any political activism from head teachers. The Head of thePublic Relations Unit of GES, Charles Parker-Allotey, said that the ban was put in place because some political organizations were seeking out head teachers in an effort to use schools for events. Parker-Allotey continued to explain that there shouldn’t be a “scramble” for the use of facilities or any sort of regard for schools as political flashpoints. GES maintains that the ban is in place to keep schools peaceful, and although they aren’t against political activity in general, they intend to maintain “sanity” with regards to school grounds usage. Parker-Allotey and GES have also urged head teachers that are deeply active in politics to resign from their positions, adding that “the practice [is] against the code of conduct of the Civil Service.”
The ban has been responded to in The Chronicle, who posted an editorial response saying, “We would like to believe that Government, as a subject learned these days as part of the social studies course, is politics at its formative stage. To ban all form of politics from people who are learning the art of governance is difficult to comprehend.” The Chronicle also pointed out that students would not be harmed if political organizations used the schools only when term wasn’t in session: that way, students would be free from any political pressures, and the schools would receive much-needed money. They concluded by calling attention to freedom of speech with regards to head teachers being politically active.
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