Deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Opoku Mensah, has debunked claims of students being shot at during a protest at the Islamic Senior High School.
According to him, a visit to all health facilities where the injured students are, reveals that nobody has any “injury whatsoever as a result of gunshot”. He noted that prior to returning to the school from the hospital visits, some students at the hospitals were being prepared by doctors to be released back to campus.
“I came in the morning to ascertain the happening on campus and I can tell you on authority that there is no injured student on campus, nobody was shot at as the claims by the reports that the parents were making. That is not true. I don’t know where they’re getting that information from… So, if parents are listening to me, nobody was shot, there’s nothing like an injured student…”
Opoku Mensah
Commenting on whether the ministry has interacted with management of the school, Mr Opoku Mensah expressed that his outfit is yet to do that. He explained that when they initially arrived at the school in the morning they sought to calm tempers down while parents were trooping into the school.
“So, with the help of the regional director, the heads of some of the institutions, Opoku Ware headmaster [and] Okess School headmaster were there to help out. So, we spoke to the parents to calm them down and we proceeded to visit the health facilities where these students had been admitted. We’ve done that [and] we’ve come back to the school…”
Opoku Mensah
Calm and teaching of students restored to campus
The Deputy Spokesperson for the Education Ministry revealed that the IGP “just left the campus” to various hospitals to visit the students. Additionally, he highlighted that the staff from the Ministry of Education headed by the Deputy Minister was also following suit together with the Regional minister.
“So, per the assessment on campus now, we have a conducive environment and the media can attest to it. We even met some of the parents at the hospitals and they were reporting that the reports were that their wards have been shot dead and behold they went to these facilities and we interacted with all the students who have been admitted.”
Opoku Mensah
Elaborating on the state of teaching and learning on the campus, Mr Opoku Mensh highlighted that before his team left campus to visit those who were hospitalized, teaching and learning was ongoing. He stated that although normalcy has been restored, students are being engaged to psyche them up and encouraged to have confidence and “not to harbour any fear” in them.
“So, the minister will definitely speak to the students… I am told that the IGP also will speak with the students to calm them down.”
Opoku Mensah
At least 30 students of the Islamic Senior High School at Abrepo in the Ashanti Region were rushed to the hospital after police allegedly opened tear gas on them while they were demonstrating over frequent road accidents in front of the school.
The students of the school are said to have blocked the road in front of their school in the course of their protest over frequent knockdowns.
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