Accra — October 20 The government has been urged to overhaul how child protection issues are handled in Ghana’s public school system despite huge investments in education.
The Director of Child Rights International, Mr Bright Kwaku Appiah, said the government spent almost GH¢18 billion on basic and second cycle education in 2025 alone, but the system for protecting the interest and dignity of children does not match the investment.
“If our views continue to happen to children, then we are undermining the very investment that we are making,” he said.
He said the state must begin to rethink child protection within schools, arguing that leaving learning, management and the protection of the school environment all in the hands of the Ghana Education Service (GES) is not working.
“The GES over the years has not shown readiness in handling issues of child protection,” he noted.
Proposals
The advocate proposed two key reforms:
1. The counselling units of government should be elevated to a level of authority so they can independently protect the interest of children in schools.
2. Social welfare officers should be integrated into schools to handle child protection issues, instead of leaving everything to the GES.
He said once learning and management are handled by GES, the social environment should be given to a different institution with the skills to deal with it properly.
According to him, Ghana’s laws on child protection are very strong and straight, but what is lacking is the mechanism to make the laws effective.
“We need to introduce those who have the skills and the manpower. We cannot just continue to say GES is handling education; therefore, we should hand over even social protection to them. They don’t have the capacity,” he said.
He added that currently GES handles cases based on its own code of conduct and draws conclusions based on what it thinks should be in the interest of children, a situation he said should not be allowed to continue.
If counselling units and social welfare are given authority in schools, he said, they will be able to do independent work that will help protect the privacy and dignity of children.
