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The Upper East Regional Minister, Akamugri Donatus Atanga, has directed the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ban all tribal groupings in senior high and technical schools across the region.
The directive follows growing concerns over recurrent student riots in second-cycle institutions, which the minister says often take on tribal dimensions and threaten peaceful coexistence in schools.
Mr Atanga gave the directive during a media engagement on Wednesday, January 21, where he bemoaned the rising incidence of unrest in senior high and technical schools in the Upper East Region.
According to him, the organisation of tribal unions in schools fuels division among students and has been identified as a major contributor to disturbances and riots.
“The purpose of a boarding school is integration. If we encourage tribal groupings in schools, it will defeat the very purpose for which boarding schools were established,” the minister stated.
He explained that the decision to ban such groupings is aimed at promoting unity, discipline, and harmony among students from diverse backgrounds.
The regional minister further attributed the spate of riots to a broader breakdown of discipline, not only among students but also among teaching and non-teaching staff.
“My understanding of these riots is that they are not usually about the students alone; rather, they stem from a breakdown of discipline, even among teaching and non-teaching staff,” he noted.
Mr Atanga therefore called on school authorities, teachers, non-teaching staff, and students to uphold discipline and foster peaceful coexistence in all second-cycle institutions across the region.
