GHANASCO, NAVASCO CLOSED DOWN...After student violence (BACK PAGE, JUNE 1, 2010)

TWO schools — the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) in Tamale and the Navrongo Senior High School (NAVASCO) in the Upper East Region — have been closed down following students’ violence there. In Tamale, the action of the authorities followed a rampage by the students on Monday for the alleged seizure of their mobile phones, while a seven-member committee has been set up to investigate the cause of the rioting at NAVASCO.After the GHANASCO students had embarked on a massive demonstration and destroyed bungalows and other school properties, the decision to close the school down was arrived at after a meeting of the security committees of the Northern Region, the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, the Ghana Education Service and the school authorities. The rioters also smashed the windscreens and dented the police light-armoured vehicle, as well as the windscreens of the vehicle used by the Tamale Metropolitan Director of Education and a taxicab belonging to the husband of a female tutor.Other property destroyed included two motorbikes, one of which was completely burnt. The students also carried away some fowls belonging to some tutors and vandalised the bungalows of some of the tutors, destroying personal belongings in the process, including television sets and sound systems.The students were also alleged to have broken into the office of the senior housemaster and taken away the mobile phones which had been seized from the students.A police reinforcement had to fire balls of canister to disperse the stone-throwing rioters, resulting in some of the students sustaining injuries.Even though calm has returned to the school compound, as of the time of filing this report there was still heavy police presence to avert further disturbances.So far, 16 students have been arrested in connection with the violence and they are in custody, assisting the police in their investigations.The Headmistress of the school, Madam Mary Asobayire, who returned to Tamale from Accra on Sunday night after the successful launch of the 50th anniversary of GHANASCO, could not immediately be reached for her comment.Briefing a fact-finding delegation, led by the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, and his deputy, Mrs Lucy Awuni, that toured NAVASCO after the riots, the Assistant Headmaster in charge of Administration, Mr Sixtus Adikwo, said the aggression started at about 10 p.m. on Sunday when he heard students chanting in the direction of the headmaster’s bungalow.According to him, when he came out and rushed to the school administration block, he found the rioters heading towards the administration block and he tried to stop them. Mr Adikwo said when he inquired, the students informed him that they were after the life of one teacher who had denied them the opportunity of taking their lunch and supper that day.He said the rioting students resorted to the throwing of stones and, in the process, broke a number of louvre blades at the administration block. Some also broke into the office of the senior housemistress, vandalised the office and took away about 40 mobile phones which had been seized from the students by the school authorities. Others bolted with some accounting books meant for sale.Mr Adikwo also indicated that the rampaging students broke some street light bulbs and even attempted to plunge the entire school into darkness by disconnecting power supply to the school.He indicated that attempts by the prefects to calm the situation backfired, as the rioting students chased their leaders away and pelted them with stones, adding that the prefects were labelled as traitors.He said the authorities had no option but to call in the police, after consulting the DCE for the area, who had driven in first to the headmaster’s bungalow, in the course of which one policeman was hit by a stone, injuring him.Mr Adikwo said following a meeting held separately with the prefects, the staff and the SRC, it was concluded that conditions on the school compound were not safe, hence the proposal for the temporary closure of the school.According to the District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Edward Abazing, preliminary investigations revealed that there were a number of remote causes to the incident. One of them, according to him, was the decision by the school authorities to seize students’ mobile phones. He said the students also rejected the payment of postal charges of GH¢1 to enable the school authorities to post terminal reports to their parents.