The chiefs, Asafoatse, and elders of Anum in the Eastern Region are contemplating barring day students of the Anum Presby Senior High School henceforth from settling in the community.
The traditional leaders have accused the day students who have rented accommodation facilities within the Anum Township of engaging in acts of indiscipline in the community.
Inadequate accommodation facilities on campus have forced some students to seek alternative housing in the town but the students are accused of smoking, engaging in rowdyism, indecent dressing, chasing girls, among others.
Adontenhene of the Anum Traditional Area, Okoagyeman Kwasi Anyane V in an interview with GhanaWeb bemoaned the behaviours of the students which he said were improper.
“The dressing of the students sometimes is unacceptable and I have had cause to sack some of them back home to dress well. When they’re supposed to be learning in the evening you instead see them roaming in town running after girls. We even hear some of them smoke marijuana,” said the Adontenhene.
He recounted an instance where a fight broke out in the community between some of the students and the okada boys when the former refused to pay the latter for their services.
He appealed for increased infrastructure in the various senior high schools to house students on campus to ensure that incidents like this are curtailed.
“I’m calling on the government to ensure that there are more accommodation facilities on the various campuses to house all the students since that ensures better security for them instead of staying in the town,” he said.
Asafoatse Okum-Anim Gyau, Senior Asafoatse of the Anum Traditional Area who said the behaviour of the students was corrupting other youngsters in the community recounted an instance when some students were allegedly caught smoking, adding that teenage pregnancies were on the rise in the community due to this.
“Some time ago, we caught some of them smoking weed at a special place, a fight even ensued between them over a girl and this is very problematic. Some girls have even become pregnant due to this,” he said.
The elders of the community say the situation has remained the same despite persistent complaints to school authorities and have vowed to stop students of the school from staying in the community if they continue in their waywardness.
Headmaster of the Anum Senior High School, Rev Richard Asafo-Adjei when contacted by GhanaWeb confirmed that the school had received such reports regarding the activities of the students.
According to him, the school was considering renting accommodation facilities in the community to house all the day students which would also house some teachers to supervise the activities of the students.
“With this arrangement, we can take full charge over the house, over the children and we can have control over them so we have rented apartments for the students and then position two teachers to oversee their stay over there in order to maintain discipline among them,” he said.
He attributed the problem to the lack of accommodation facilities for all students on campus and added that the government was on course to complete ongoing dormitories and classroom blocks on campus to address the issue.
“The government too is building dormitories for the boys, it will stop them from these things. The government is also building a 12-unit classroom block for us and if the dormitory is completed alongside classroom block, we can accommodate a large number of the day students into the boarding school to curtail these things,” said Rev. Richard Asafo-Adjei.
Inadequate accommodation facilities on campus have forced some students to stay in hoses in the town