In recent weeks, I have written about Ghana’s child protection system, the need for a sex offender register, and the alarming adolescent pregnancies recorded between January and July 2026.
I have asked an uncomfortable question: Where are the men responsible?
On World Mental Health Day, under the theme “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change,” I encouraged that we listen to teenagers whose experiences expose failures in the systems meant to protect them.
It all feels like a sequel to the bombshell that dropped last week: disturbing allegations of sexual misconduct involving the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High School and about 16 female students over the past year.
The reports raise grave concerns about what those in authority knew, when they knew it, and why meaningful action apparently followed only after media investigations brought the matter into the public domain.
The reported chain of awareness is staggering.
Teachers, safeguarding personnel, parents, community members, traditional authorities, political actors, education officials, old students and law enforcement have all featured in accounts surrounding the matter.
Some reportedly confronted or admonished the accused instead of ensuring proper investigations and protecting the children.
Is this how children who found the courage to speak were rewarded?
What did it cost them emotionally to report alleged misconduct by a headmaster wielding considerable authority over their school lives?
Why should their complaints require media intervention before the machinery of protection appears to move?
This is not simply about one alleged perpetrator. It is about institutional failure.
The Ghana Education Service (GES), Police and other institutions entrusted with child protection must account for their actions and inaction to restore public confidence.
Institutions cannot claim to protect children while complaints against powerful individuals are handled through informal conversations, private admonitions, administrative manoeuvres and “kangaroo committees” that leave children exposed.
Political affiliation, professional standing, traditional authority and public office must never shield anyone from accountability.
Allegations must be investigated without fear or favour.
Where evidence establishes wrongdoing, the law must take its course.
Those who knowingly suppress complaints, obstruct investigations or frustrate justice must also face appropriate consequences.
If the allegations are substantiated, decisive and transparent action, including prosecution where warranted, and appropriate professional sanctions, must send an unmistakable message.
Accountability must extend to those whose conduct enabled abuse or obstructed justice.
GES owes the nation a candid explanation and an apology.
Knee-jerk statements and attempts to sacrifice one individual to appease public outrage will not suffice.
We need to know what safeguarding measures exist in every single school, how they are strengthened after incidents, and why intervention apparently failed, particularly at a school with a history of sexual abuse concerns since 2015.
Parents, children and stakeholders must be empowered to seek help beyond institutions that fail them.
Teachers who attempted to report the matter reportedly faced barriers to escalation.
How did we get here?
Teaching children to report abuse and identify trusted adults is no longer enough.
They must also understand how to escalate complaints safely and preserve available evidence.
It seems credible media organisations may provide another avenue when official channels fail.
This is what works in Ghana.
The media, in turn, must protect children from identification, sensationalism and further trauma.
Ultimately, we must ask ourselves: what kind of society requires a media exposé before taking a child’s complaint seriously?
Ghana does not need another promise to protect its children.
It needs institutions that act on the first complaint, not when public outrage becomes impossible to ignore.
It also needs a functional sex offender register that enables appropriate authorities and the public, within a clear legal framework, to identify offenders and make informed decisions about who is entrusted with the care and education of children.
When children speak, protection must follow. Not punishment for speaking. Not silence. Not merely a transfer of the accused. Justice.
The Writer is a Child development expert/ Fellow of the Zero-To-Three Academy, USA. E-mail:
