The Dormaa Municipal Officer of the Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Freeman Ndor has advised pupils and teachers in the Municipality to avoid acts that would expose school girls to violence.
Mr Ndor noted that some teachers employed tactics including compulsory assignment for girls
outside class hours and took undue advantage to abuse innocent minors.
He was speaking to school children, teachers and a cross-section of parents at Abonsrakrom near
Dormaa-Ahenkro at the celebration of their annual inter-school sports festival under the theme:
"Catching them Young".
The topic for a talk shop, organised by the Dormaa Traditional Healers and Birth Attendants
Association (DOTHEBAA), a non-governmental organization, was "Domestic Violence against School Girls"
Mr Ndor said in line with the Domestic Violence Act 2007(Act 732) it was wrong for any teacher or male school child to subject any female school girl to any form of physical, sexual or psychological torture in or outside the classroom.
He urged female pupils to refrain from going to their teachers' houses in singles and warned
teachers to desist from engaging the services of school girls for their house chores.
Mr Ndor proposed to teachers without wives to engage house helps to ensure the avoidance of
contact with school girls outside classes.
The CHRAJ Director reminded teachers of the need to consult their head teachers before issuing
any form of corporal punishment as the act was not only being considered barbaric in contemporary
society, but was also frowned upon due its potential to leave an indelible trauma on victims.
He stated that corporal punishment and in some cases, sexual harassment from teachers had
resulted in school drop-outs while the practice of labeling brilliant girls in school as witches continued to make negative impact on girls' education in Ghana.
"The traditional perception of the female child and her role in the Ghanaian society is very old, complex and difficult to change in a jiffy but with concerted and collective
approach and the current revelation that women are capable of excelling in all fields of endeavor, the Ghanaian society requires to change its approach and perception towards the girl child", he added.
Mr Ndor said the classroom should be made the first agent of encouragement to the girl-child and when she grows, she would naturally acquire the other relevant components of responsibility.
He appealed to teachers to regard girls in their schools as their younger sisters and daughters entrusted to them by society to be moulded into responsible adults.
Mr Ndor reminded teachers that any other relationship with the girls would contravene the laws and perpetrators would be liable for prosecution.
He cautioned school girls, who cultivate unhealthy interest in their teachers, to put a stop to the practice or risk ruining their own future.
Later the Project Director for DOTHEBAA, Mahama Salaam, told the GNA in an interview that his NGO was worried about complaints of unhealthy teacher-female pupil relationship in schools and the rate at which teachers were using their pupils on their farms even on school days.
He expressed the hope that the same message would be extended to as many communities in the
municipality as possible to minimize the practices and give the school girls the needed atmosphere to learn and realize their potential for the future.
Mr Salaam deplored the incidence of pregnant girls taking part in Basic Education Certificate
Examination in the Municipality and proposed good parent-teacher relations as well as pupils'
discipline to foster a sustained solution to the annual spectacle at some examination centres.