A ‘Peace in School’ project has been launched in Bolgatanga to contribute to efforts being made to curb riots and conflicts and prevent infiltration of violent extremism in second cycle institutions in the Upper East Region.
Dubbed, “Preventing extremism and conflict in educational institutions and schools”, it seeks to build the capacity of stakeholders in education to prevent violence and ensure human safety and security in schools.
It was launched by the Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-Ghana), a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), in partnership with Coginta, another NGO, with financial support from the European Union.
The 10-month pilot project was part of the implementation of the EU sponsored project dubbed, “Preventing Electoral Violence and Providing Security to the Northern Border Regions of Ghana project.
Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the launch, Ms Jaw-haratu Amadu, the Head of Programmes, RISE-Ghana, said the project would be piloted in 15 second cycle institutions in the region to build the capacity of stakeholders including teachers and students to employ non-violence means of settling their differences.
Ms Amadu noted that over the years, riots and violent behaviour in schools particularly at the second cycle school level had been on the increase in the region, leading to loss of lives, property and closure of schools.
The situation, she said, had contributed largely to the number of conflicts being recorded in the region.
“In 2001, the Peace Council in the Upper East Region came out with a roadmap on peace and on that roadmap, it was captured that our Senior High Schools (SHS) were the main cause of the number of conflicts in the region.
“And the types of conflicts that are usually recorded are political, ethnic in nature and sometimes the inability of teachers to create the platform to solve the grievances of students”.
She said apart from forming peace clubs in schools due to the closeness of the region to the borders, which put the region at risk of attack, teachers and students would be trained on the essence of peace and how to identify early warning signs of violence to report for action.
Mr Joseph Anaba, the Head of Human Resource, Upper East Regional Directorate, Ghana Education Service, noted that students’ riots in the region were worrisome especially in recent times and needed a collective stakeholder approach to address the issue.
He called on parents to instill discipline and good values in their children to help curb violence among students.
Mr Mawuli Agbenu, the Upper East Regional Director, National Commission for Civic Education, said countries such as Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso had experienced terrorists’ attacks and called for support to ensure that the youth were not recruited to cause mayhem.
A desk study by National Peace Council in 2016 revealed that, between 2014 and 2016, about 70 per cent of second cycle schools in the region had recorded at least one incident of riot or violence.
Again, in 2019, four second cycle schools in the region were closed down due to students’ riots while two schools were closed down in August, 2022 and this, the stakeholders at the launch indicated had interrupted academic work leading to poor performance.
