Following a high-level briefing, the Parliamentary Select Committees on Human Rights, Gender, Children and Social Welfare, and Education have issued a unified declaration detailing decisive statutory directives on the Obuasi Senior High Technical School abuse scandal.
The parliamentary session follows revelations of systemic sexual abuse, exploitation and institutional failures at the school. The Committees met jointly with the Minister for Education and the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection to scrutinize the ministers’ immediate intervention strategies, assess the state of the criminal investigations, and establish watertight accountability measures to protect survivors.
Parliament has commended both ministries for their swift preliminary actions, including the immediate interdiction of the headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, and the deployment of psychological support teams. However, the Committees noted that the scale of the trauma exposed by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni requires an unprecedented, aggressive and highly coordinated state response.
Following detailed submissions from both Ministers, the Joint Parliamentary Committees have resolved on immediate national directives.
On prosecution, the Committees have demanded uncompromising criminal justice. The Ministry of Interior and the Inspector General of Police must expedite criminal proceedings against the interdicted headmaster. The Committees demand that the judiciary treat this case with maximum urgency to ensure swift justice and serve as a stark national deterrent. Religious bodies, leaders and political institutions should desist from frustrating the criminal justice system and allow the system to take its course.
On survivor care, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in partnership with the Ghana Health Service, will continue to offer the services of clinical psychologists and medical professionals to victims of Obuasi SHTS. Comprehensive, trauma-informed counselling and medical monitoring will be guaranteed to all survivors at the state’s expense. The Ministry of Education must strictly enforce anti-victimization policies. The identity of every survivor must remain legally protected. Any student, parent or staff member who subjects survivors to social stigma or intimidation will face immediate prosecution under the Children’s Act.
On safeguarding frameworks, the Committees directed that the current administrative pathways for reporting sexual misconduct within the Ghana Education Service are broken. Parliament has directed the Ministry of Education to co-design an independent, third-party reporting mechanism that bypasses local school heads entirely, allowing students to report abuse directly to a centralized, protected registry.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, together with appropriate institutions, should come up with a Register for Sexual Offenders. The Committees believe this will serve as a deterrent to others.
The Ministry of Education should immediately launch a sweeping, independent safeguarding audit across all boarding and day second-cycle institutions in Ghana to assess student safety, housing vulnerability and staff compliance with the GES Code of Conduct. The Ministry should also partner institutions it deems fit to train all teachers on the GES Code of Conduct.
The Ministries of Education and Gender, Children and Social Welfare should build a robust system to ensure a coordinated approach to nip such issues in the bud on school campuses and help address them when they happen.
The Joint Committees will maintain active, unyielding oversight over this process. Both the Minister for Education and the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection will provide regular progress briefings to Parliament until criminal prosecutions are concluded and structural reforms fully implemented.
Ghana’s schools must be sanctuaries of learning, not predatory grounds. The safety, dignity and future of our children remain non-negotiable.
