Africa-Press – Ghana. Mr George Yaw Boakye, Ahafo Regional Minister has observed the rising cases of suicide among Senior High School (SHS) students in the country is due to lack of emotional peace of the students.
He emphasised that young people and students need absolute peace to enable them to live comfortably in schools and concentrate on their studies. Mr Boakye made the observation when he inaugurated Peace Ambassadors Club, an initiative of the Ahafo Regional Peace Council at the Sankore SHS in the Asunafo South District of the Region.
He said peace is not only the absence of war, and that denying students’ necessities of life, as well as educational needs and the required counselling in times of need affected their emotional peace.
Mr Boakye said it is the responsibility of parents and teachers to counsel students regularly and ensure that their adolescent needs were provided, as the government created a conducive environment to facilitate academic progress.
He commended the National Peace Council (NPC) for the formation of the club, saying it would help to strengthen relative peace in the area. He tasked the members of the club to engage and explain to their colleagues the relevance of peace.
In a speech read on his behalf, Most Reverend Peter Kwaku Atuahene, the Catholic Bishop of Goaso Diocese and Chairman of the Ahafo Regional Peace Council expressed regret about the re-emergence of student rioting across the country.
“These riots have manifested in the form of violence and other negative social vices in our SHSs resulting in extensive destruction of properties, disruption of academic calendar, displacement of teachers and students and ultimately led to closure of schools,” he said.
These unhealthy and unpleasant behaviours, Mt Rev Atuahene said, have contributed to an increase in school-dropout rates of students, psychological trauma, and poor learning outcomes.
He reminded the gathering that the pursuit of peace remained a shared and collective responsibility and urged everybody to play his or her part. Most Rev Atuahened urged students to avoid the use of violence and pass through laid-down procedures and structures in finding solutions to their grievances.
Mr Kennedy Atiibo, the Acting Executive Secretary of the Ahafo Regional Peace Council, who later took the club through the mandate of the NPC as well as vigilantism and violent extremisms, advised them to strive to remain agents of peace to impact their localities.
Master Bernard Boateng, a member of the club, expressed appreciation to the Peace Council for setting up the club in the school, saying it would enhance their knowledge for them to pursue peace in the area.
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