The Northern Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, ASP Emmanuel Horlatu has advised female students below 16 to report cases of sexual harassment by their teachers to the police.
ASP Horlatu, while asking the girls to report cases of sexual harrassment, also entreated the girls to stay away from any form of sexual activity with their teachers.
Children under 18 years must report teachers or men who intentionally touch their sensitive organs to law enforcement agencies for appropriate action, the DOVVSU coordinator advised.
According to him, it is common now in the region that in every academic term a female student drops out of school as a result of unwanted pregnancy.
The major contributing factor to early child marriage, according to ASP Horlatu, is teenage pregnancy because parents of the victims have no option but to give out the children to the men who impregnated them.
ASP Horlatu was addressing pupils and students from the Vittin and Dabokpaa Senior High Schools, Zoosimli Naa JHS, Belpila JHS and SOUWATUL Islamic primary school at Tuutingli, during the launch of a teacher-student sexual relationship campaign in the Tamale metropolis.
The campaign, launched by the Young Urban Women Project of NORSAAC, was aimed at addressing teacher-student sexual relationship in the various basic and secondary schools in the Tamale metropolis.
ASP Horlau revealed that a national service personnel posted to a school is currently languishing in jail after he had an affair with a pupil in the Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo district.
The School authorities, according to the DOVVSU coordinator attempted covering the service personnel but the victim reported her ordeal to the father leading to the arrest of the teacher.
Another teacher, through the help of the media, is also in being dealt with for impregnating a pupil at EP junior high school, ASP Horlatu added. “No year passes without a teacher impregnating a student or pupil,” ASP Horlatu stated.
Even though sexual abuse is not limited to teachers, ASP Horlatu said, teachers are expected to apply their professional ethics and moral upbringing to the maximum benefit because it is just unimaginable for a teacher to deal with a non-performing student he sleeps with.
The Tamale South sub metro Director, Mr Baba Tanko said even though teachers are responsible for about 90 percent of students’ sexual abuse, the evidence on the ground also reveals that some of the students induce their teachers either through their dressings or their gestures to lure teachers who cannot control their emotions.
The assembly, Mr Tanko said, is ready to collaborate with NORSAAC to deal with the issue in the metropolis. He appealed to NORSAAC to expand their engagement on the issue to the unit committee level so that the issue could be addressed holistically.
A project offficer under the Gender and Governance Department at NORSAAC, Ms Nancy Yeri told Zaa News the young urban women project’s first phase ended successfully last year which resulted in the formation of the young urban women movement.
The young women movement which has its collaborators in Accra, India and South Africa, Ms Nancy explained, are expected to draw together other like minded young women in Ghana to help find solutions to issues such as sexual reproductive health and abuses.
The campaign, she added, was to add their voice towards reducing sexual abuses among young men in Ghana. Transfers of teachers by the Ghana Education Service from schools where they abused females students she said, wasn’t enough to serve as deterrent to others.
The campaigners consisting of in-school (those in formal school) and out-of school (those who have not been to school but under go skill training) held placards some of which read; “culprits should be punished accordingly,” “teachers stop sexual harassment,” “head teachers intensify measures to check teacher-students relationship,” “education is our right amongst others.”
The project is being supported financially by Hewlett in partnership with actionaid Ghana.
