Dear Honourable Education Minister,
I write with a deep sense of urgency and national concern regarding the alarming rise in student delinquency across our Senior High Schools and basic institutions in Ghana.
Recent incidents involving teacher assaults, weapon possession in schools, organised student violence, drug use glorification, sexual exploitation content, and criminal acts by students are no longer isolated disciplinary cases. They represent a systemic breakdown in the moral and behavioural development ecosystem of our children.
Disturbingly, a recurring trend has emerged: in several cases, parents and guardians are seen defending, justifying, or even celebrating acts of indiscipline and violence perpetrated by their wards against teachers, law enforcement, and institutions of authority. This shift signals a dangerous erosion of parental responsibility and societal values.
Global evidence from jurisdictions such as Singapore, the United Kingdom, and parts of the United States shows that effective educational discipline reforms must integrate enforceable parental accountability mechanisms. Where parents are actively bound by law and policy to the behavioural outcomes of their children, rates of juvenile delinquency, school violence, and substance abuse significantly decline.
Honourable, in Ghana, while our educational policies appropriately focus on child protection and discipline, there remains a glaring policy gap: the absence of a structured and enforceable parental responsibility framework for deviant student behaviour.
I respectfully propose the adoption of a “Parental Responsibility and Child Behaviour Accountability Policy (PRCBAP)” under the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, the Ghana Police Service, and the Department of Social Welfare. This framework should include, among other things:
1. Mandatory Parenting Accountability Orders for parents of students involved in violent or criminal misconduct.
2. Compulsory parenting education and behavioural counselling programmes.
3. School–Parent Legal Cooperation Units at district levels.
4. Regulation of harmful digital content targeting minors.
5. Restorative justice programmes involving both parents and children.
6. Civil liability measures for severe acts such as assault, vandalism, andorganisedd school violence.
Honourable Minister, teachers can teach, but they cannot parent. Schools can discipline, but they cannot replace the moral foundation of the home. If immediate policy action is not taken, the long-term implications include, but are not limited to, increased youth criminality, teacher attrition due to unsafe working environments, erosion of respect for authority, national productivity decline and social instability.
Our educational system must not evolve into a crisis management system for failures originating from parental neglect and societal normalisation of deviance. The time has come for Ghana to adopt a firm, restorative, and legally grounded parental accountability policy to safeguard the future of our children and the integrity of our educational institutions.
I humbly urge the Ministry to initiate a national stakeholder dialogue on parental responsibility in child upbringing and student discipline reform. The future of Ghana’s moral and intellectual capital depends on the decisions we make today, Sir.
Respectfully submitted,
Al-Hassan Kodwo Baidoo
Educational Leadership and Reform Advocate
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