The Nkawie Senior High Technical School has been handed a two-year ban from all extracurricular activities within the Ashanti Region, following incidents of misconduct during the Inter-Schools Athletics event at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.

The school cannot participate in external sporting activities, as well as Student Representative Council (SRC) and cadet activities until 2028.

The sanction was imposed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) after investigations found them culpable of initiating attacks on Osei Tutu Senior High School, Kumasi Technical Institute School (KSTS) and Aduman Senior High School during the competition.

According to Ashanti Regional Physical Education Coordinator, Benjamin Blay, the decision was taken to maintain discipline of students at school sporting events.

“The ban includes everything in sports activities. It even extends to SRC events and they can’t participate in cadet activities,” he said.

Violence during inter-school competition in Kumasi has become a recurring situation in recent years. Last month, over 3,000 seats were damaged after clashes between schools.

Benjamin said measures were instituted by the GES this year to avoid such incidents, but turned to be insufficient.

“We realized that sometimes the influence of the national service personnel, old students and then interns was also a part of the problem.

“Sometimes they have memories of old events, and they try to replicate. This year, we stopped all of them from joining the students in the stands. We took them to the VIP, and that actually brought sanity.”