The Executive Director for Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare has urged students to report sexual abuse in schools directly to an external agency, arguing that complaints should not depend solely on school authorities when members of management are implicated.
According to Kofi Asare, reporting such incidents to the Police Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) for example is a better approach to help reduce the risk of complaints being filtered within schools and provide students with an alternative route to seek help.
Speaking in a radio interview on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, Mr Asare recommended that students should use the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection’s toll-free Helpline of Hope, 0800 800 800, to report abuse directly.
“For us at Eduwatch, we believe that the minimal or zero human involvement in the reporting system will be the best for schools,” he said.
He argued that students should be able to report allegations to an agency outside the school and GES hierarchy, particularly when the people expected to handle complaints may themselves be implicated.
Mr Asare also called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to protect school safe-space focal persons from punitive transfers, arguing that some face threats because of their work to safeguard students, particularly girls.
He said the officers needed the confidence to report suspected abuse without fear of retaliation from school authorities.
Citing his experience with a project in Malawi, Mr Asare said the country's education minister had issued a directive preventing safe-space focal persons from being transferred unless they requested it.
He urged Ghana to consider a similar measure, arguing that safeguarding officers need sufficient time in their schools to understand the environment and identify potential risks to students.
