Deputy Minister of Education has warned that the country cannot afford to dismiss its student misconduct and safety crisis as isolated or statistically insignificant — even as he acknowledged that the worst incidents involve fewer than five per cent of the nation's roughly 800 public secondary and TVET institutions.

Dr Clement Abas Apaak, who doubles as Member of Parliament for Builsa South, made the remarks on Newsfile on Saturday during a wide-ranging discussion on student safety that has been prompted by a series of disturbing incidents in recent weeks.

Research cited in the programme found that at least 16 student deaths had been reported at universities across Ghana since 2024, with seven of those occurring at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Dr Apak did not dispute the figures. Instead, he argued that the moral obligation to act did not depend on the scale of the problem.

"Even if it's just two or three — it will lead," he said, borrowing a phrase from journalism to make his point. "As a nation that is seeking to train the next generation to be responsible, patriotic citizens with integrity, we ought to be worried."

He acknowledged that describing the full scope of misconduct in precise statistical terms was difficult, but outlined the range of incidents that had come to the ministry's attention.

Those included student-on-student violence within schools; clashes during sporting and social competitions; students attacking members of surrounding communities; cases of examination malpractice in which students mobilised to physically assault invigilators; incidents of students wielding machetes against fellow pupils to facilitate cheating; and the discovery of offensive weapons in students' luggage.

Despite the gravity of those incidents, Dr Apak maintained they remained a small fraction of overall school conduct nationally. But he said that provided no comfort.

"We have the responsibility of providing security, being the principal state institution mandated to supervise the education of our wards," he said.

He said the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission were the designated regulators for their respective sectors, each operating under existing codes of conduct that prescribed responses ranging from internal suspension and expulsion to criminal prosecution. Students who had assaulted teachers, he noted, had in some cases been arrested, tried, fined, or jailed.

Dr Apak said the minister's call for a stakeholder conference to review existing rules and identify gaps was the right response to the current moment.

"We require all stakeholders to confer, assess the rules and regulations we have in place, and see where we ought to make some augmentations," he said.

His remarks came as the country grappled with the suicide of a 17-year-old Mfantsipim School student, the interdiction of a Bole SHS teacher over a viral sexual misconduct video, and the death of a UCC student whose body was found on a Cape Coast beach, with a suspect now in police custody.