Parliament Directs Education, Gender Ministries to Establish Independent Sexual Abuse Reporting System in SHSs

Parliament Directs Education, Gender Ministries to Establish Independent Sexual Abuse Reporting System in SHSs

Parliament’s Select Committees on Education, Human Rights, Gender, Children and Social Welfare have directed the Ministries of Education and Gender, Children and Social Protection to establish an independent reporting system in senior high schools to enable students to report sexual abuse without going through their head teachers or other school authorities.

The directive follows revelations of alleged systemic sexual abuse, exploitation and institutional failures at the Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS).

In their recommendations, the committees called for the creation of an independent, third-party reporting mechanism that would allow students to report incidents of sexual misconduct directly to a centralised and protected registry, bypassing school authorities.

According to the committees, the existing administrative channels for reporting sexual misconduct within the Ghana Education Service (GES) are “broken”, raising concerns that complaints could be suppressed or mishandled within the education system.

The proposed mechanism is therefore expected to provide students with a safer and more reliable avenue to report abuse and seek protection without fear of interference from school authorities.

The directive forms part of recommendations issued after a joint briefing by the sector ministers of Education and Gender, Children and Social Protection on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, regarding the alleged sexual abuse at Obuasi SHTS.

The recommendations were contained in a joint media statement released by the parliamentary committees following the briefing.