Ghana Education Ministry to introduce hotline for reporting school sexual abuse

On Thursday, 22 October 2026, Deputy Education Minister Dr Clement Apaak told JoyNews' News Night that the Ministry of Education will create direct reporting channels, including a hotline, for students, parents, teachers and community members to report sexual abuse in schools.

Rationale and proposed options

Dr Apaak said the move follows allegations of sexual abuse involving the suspended headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Zakaria Abdulai, which exposed weaknesses in the existing reporting structure.

“In the wake of this issue, we became aware that there was a challenge within the reporting structure as far as GES is concerned,” he said.

He explained that the new channels would provide an alternative route for complaints to reach the ministry, enabling a more prompt response.

“We believe that if we were to provide a bypass that would allow victims, parents of victims, teaching and non‑teaching staff in the schools where some of these despicable occurrences take place, or even community members and leaders, it will make it easier for such complaints to get to the ministry so that we can act tenaciously,” Dr Apaak said.

The minister noted that a hotline is one of several options under consideration, acknowledging that students are generally not permitted to carry mobile phones in school.

“The concept of the hotline is one among many other options,” he said.

He cited the Obuasi SHTS case as an example where complaints remained unresolved because school officials could not provide an effective response, allowing alleged abuse to continue.

“From the documentary, we saw pieces of evidence to suggest that other teachers, a housemistress, and even parents had become aware, and because the structure did not allow them to get the needed response in terms of action, this dragged on,” he said.

Dr Apaak did not give a timeline for when the new reporting mechanisms will be operational. The proposal follows calls for stronger safeguarding measures after the investigative documentary by journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni highlighted the allegations at Obuasi SHTS.