By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has strongly condemned the growing incidents of violence among sections of students during school sporting activities in the country in recent times. However, CHASS says the Criminal Investigation Department Director-General’s visit to Swedru Senior High Technical School to demand the surrender of suspects in the alleged attack on a student from Obrachire did not breach any law or rule.
Speaking to GBC in Kumasi at the start of this year’s Ashanti Regional Schools Super Zonal Athletics Competition, the national president of CHASS, Rev. Fr. Stephen Owusu Sekyere, who is also the headmaster of Opoku Ware School, said: “I have seen the video, but I couldn’t watch it twice. I can’t understand why a student would want to kill another student.”
Rev. Fr. Owusu Sekyere said CHASS is concerned about the rising spate of indiscipline among students, especially during sporting events.
“You realise that when students attack each other, at times it happens inside the stadium, in the stands. That we can control because teachers are present. Those that happen outside the stadium and in town are difficult to control because some of the students are day students. When they are outside our jurisdiction, we find it difficult to control them. So I think that, as a country, we should all come together and take it as our responsibility to check students in uniform when they are outside the school,” he appealed.
Discipline measures and uniform concerns
The CHASS president noted that the Ghana Education Service (GES) Code of Discipline provides strong alternative measures to punish erring students, contrary to suggestions that rising indiscipline in schools is due to the ban on caning.
Rev. Fr. Owusu Sekyere also raised serious concerns about the reported sale of branded school uniforms in the open market, noting that the situation must be treated as a national security concern since it creates room for impersonation and the perpetration of crime in the name of innocent schools.
“It’s a very serious concern. These uniforms are provided by the government to students, and we have individuals who supply them, they are customised. So if somebody produces the same uniforms and sells them in town, it becomes difficult to identify who is a student and who is not, because the students are many,” he noted.
Enhanced security at Super Zonal competition
This year’s Ashanti Regional Super Zonal Athletics Competition, which began on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, brings together the six best-performing schools from each zonal competition held weeks earlier. The event will span three days instead of the usual two.
The additional day is intended to reduce the stress endured by athletes and their trainers. This year’s competition has seen visibly enhanced security and emergency arrangements as a pre-emptive measure against student rowdyism within and outside the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, the venue for the event, following reported violence at similar sports festivals elsewhere in the country.
Already, the Regional Schools Sports Federation has banned Nkawie Senior High Technical School and Tweneboah Kodua Senior High School over student misconduct during the inter-zonal competition, the precursor to the Super Zonals.
Security measures and calls against banning athletics
The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, William Amankrah, said stringent security plans are in place to curb indiscipline. The plan involves the police, national security, school cadet corps, and teachers positioned among students in their respective stands to promptly identify and address any emerging acts of indiscipline.
“When we were children, we came to the stadium and our parents were not afraid. Why should they be afraid now? We are putting things in order. We are not going to close late. By 4 pm we will have closed; by 6 pm all the schools will have left. We know that everybody will leave here peacefully,” the regional GES director assured.
Dr Amankrah, himself a former regional PE coordinator, strongly opposed any idea of banning school athletics competitions, saying they are an integral part of the holistic development of the child while serving as a platform for student entertainment.
Athletes from 32 senior high schools are competing to break old records, set new ones, and win their respective track and field events.
The Regional Schools PE Coordinator, Ben Blay, said cancelling or suspending school sporting competitions could have serious repercussions for the development and future of athletes; therefore, better alternatives should be adopted in sanctioning indisciplined schools and students.
