Parliament must institute a full-scale inquiry into the disturbing allegations of sexual abuse involving female students at the Obuasi Senior High Technical School in the Ashanti Region, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has demanded.
Addressing the House on its resumption of sitting, the Minority Leader disclosed that multiple female students have stepped forward with grave allegations against the school headmaster. While confirming that administrative steps have already been taken to interdict the official, he insisted that the legislature cannot sit back and allow the matter to end with routine institutional procedures.
Recognising the sensitivity of the ongoing process, Afenyo-Markin cautioned against premature conclusions while emphasizing the fundamental role of the House. He noted that the headmaster has been suspended and the allegations remain under investigation, adding that he will not pronounce guilt because that is not the work of the House.
The Minority Leader lamented that the scandal exposes deep-seated systemic failures regarding child protection within the country’s educational framework. He observed that parents send their sons and daughters to school as an act of faith, trusting institutions with the most precious thing they own, and stressed that such trust must never be broken.
Backing calls from an education watchdog for a thorough external review into potential lapses by municipal, regional, and school authorities, the Minority Caucus threw its weight behind a parallel legislative inquiry. Afenyo-Markin explained that the Minority agrees with the call for Parliament to investigate, clarifying that the goal is not to hunt for scapegoats but to find the gaps and close them.
Fixing executive and administrative oversight failures formed a key pillar of his address to the legislature. He called for full accountability, asserting that those who failed the public, failed to act, looked the other way, or did not care about the children in their charge must be found and made to answer.
Afenyo-Markin concluded by urging Parliament to prioritize structural reforms to restore public confidence in the national school system and prevent similar abuses from recurring in educational institutions across the country.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
