The Headmistress of KNUST Senior High School, Felicia Asamoah Dankwaa, has been interdicted following the death of a final year student on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
A letter signed by the Head of Public Relations Unit at the Ghana Education Service, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, directed the headmistress to step aside for the Ashanti Regional Director of Education to take over the administration of the school, while the management of GES investigates the circumstances leading to the demise of the student.
Students of KNUST SHS demonstrated over the death of their colleague, alleging that the boy died as a result of negligence on the part of school authorities after failing to attend to him.
The students explained that their colleague was suffering from ulcer and not Covid-19, as it is being speculated.
According to the students, the school authorities feared their colleague had contracted Covid-19 and therefore neglected him.
The students said the authorities left the deceased to his fate when they could have even called for ambulance to pick him up to a nearby health facility.
Protest
As a result of their colleague’s death, the students went wild and protested about the inhumane treatment meted out to their colleague. In the process of protesting, the vehicle of the headmistress was vandalised.
One of the students recounted: “The senior housemaster told his [the deceased boy’s] friends to leave him alone. He told them to sanitise their hands and asked them why they were holding the boy and gave them a plot to weed [as punishment].”
“The headmistress herself came to stand in front of this boy and the boy was rolling on the floor for more than four hours. They couldn’t call any car to take him to the hospital.”
The police were called to the scene to maintain order.
Speaking to journalists after a meeting with the management of the school, the Ashanti Regional Director of GES, Mary Owusu Achiaw, said: “classes will begin tomorrow, by which time we hope the school will have returned to normal.”
“Everything is under control. Your wards are in safe hands. Every parent should be rest assured that their wards are in good hands,” Mrs Achiaw added.
She also said investigations had begun into the matter.
