18 May 2016

Minister of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) Dr Unity Dow says it is crucial for school management to follow the right procedures when meting out corrective measures to students.

Speaking with teaching and non-teaching members of Moeng College, May 17, in a series of meetings she held to devise the best ways of bettering education, Dr Dow reminded teachers about their mandate, encouraging them to balance corrective measures with teaching. 

Dr Dow called for consistency in punitive actions against students, arguing that lack of consistency could result in the schools losing cases against students and ultimate loss of credibility. She said students and parents who identify loopholes could appeal and win their cases based on precedence set on previous cases. 

he minister challenged the school management that before suspending or expelling a student they should ensure that they had the power to mete out the action, inform the concerned parties, students and parents amongst a host of procedural events to be followed. 

Dr Dow was responding to complaints from some teachers at the school about misconduct by some students. Teachers enumerated incidents in which some students were suspended for bad behavior but, such actions were short-lived following interventions from the top management at the ministry. 

Their contention was that such students were perpetual failures who hardly scored academic points but their corrective actions were despised.  Some of the misconducts in question were engaging in sexual activities as well as taking to drugs that they, students, concoct themselves. ENDS