Board locks out JAPASS headmaster for refusing to proceed on compulsory retirement
There was pandemonium at the Jachie-Pramso Senior High School (JAPASS) in the Ashanti Region as plain clothed policemen together with the Regional Director of Education moved in to lock out the headmaster of the school who had started his compulsory retirement but was refusing to hand over.
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The move caused confusion on the campus as the students who did not know what was amiss were asked to assemble to be briefed by the board of governors.
The confused students could be seen murmuring among themselves trying to fathom what the problem could be.
The regional directorate of education together with the management board of the school decided to force the headmaster, Paul Agyei Boakye, out of office because he had reached the compulsory retirement age of 60, but has refused to go on retirement arguing that he was not yet 60.
The headmaster was not on campus when the team visited, hence the board ordered a carpenter to replace all the locks to his office as a first step of moves to get him out.
The board chairman of the school Nana Nsuase Poku III said Mr Boakye who reached the age of 60 on May 1, 2015, was written to by the Director General of Ghana Education Service to proceed on retirement on May 2.
However, he said Mr Boakye insisted that “so far as he is concerned, his date of birth is somewhere in 1960 and as such has not yet reached the retirement age.”
According to him, this compelled the board to hold an emergency meeting in August this year and gave him up to September 7, 2015 to leave the school.
“But as of October 1, 2015, he is still at post and we have therefore decided to force him out of office… we are changing the lock to prevent him from accessing the place.”
In the meantime the Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mrs Mary Owusu Akyaw would act as the GES rules stipulate.
However, on humanitarian ground, he said the now former headmaster of the school would be given some grace period to vacate his residential accommodation to pave way for whoever would be sent to replace him.