Two youth-oriented organizations are spearheading an initiative to engage students in second-cycle institutions on establishing effective systems and processes towards addressing their concerns in school.

Youth without Borders Ghana, in collaboration with the National Youth Authority, seeks to encourage young people to adopt healthy discourse to avoid incurring legal consequences in an attempt to register grievances.

The students are sensitized by security experts to seek responsible reforms to school decisions and directives they disagree with.

Students in senior high schools sometimes resort to the use of violence and destruction of school property in expressing their grievances.

Although the violent protests intend to effect positive community changes, the method has been acknowledged as not being a responsible and peaceful strategy in a democratic society.

The Youth without Borders Ghana, in collaboration with the National Youth Authority, has thus embarked on a sensitization campaign to draw attention to peaceful methods of protests.

The campaign is titled “Addressing Violence in Senior High Schools; Instilling Democratic Principles in Young People.”

Students at the Armed Forces Senior High Technical School in Kumasi are the latest beneficiaries of the campaign.

Executive Director of the organization, Samuel Gariba, entreated students to be cautious of their public conduct to avoid disrupting the public order.

“You do not realize that their public conduct has everything to do with the legal regime governing public order.  Students in high schools have indulged in violence without recourse to the ramifications on themselves and the immediate environment. They must be mindful of maintaining school properties in the same good condition they met them so that their younger siblings can come and use them in the future,” he said.

Public Affairs Director at the Ashanti Regional Police Command, DSP Godwin Ahianyo elaborated on legal means of registering displeasure in the school community.

“When a group wants to demonstrate or organize a public gathering, the leaders must comply with the Public Order Act; write to notify the Regional Police Command in the area for the demonstration within a minimum of five working days before the planned date of the demonstration.

“State the purpose, venue, time, route and destination of the demonstration. Demonstrations are the rights of citizens, however proper administrative procedure cannot be ignored,” he said.

Metro Director of NYA, David Oteng Asamoah believes collaborative efforts among education and security institutions will entrench the campaign.

“The National Youth Authority has always sought various avenues to engage SHSs on the prevailing violent tendencies occurring on their campuses.

“I believe that partnership with YWB Ghana and the Ghana Police Service, and educational institutions will yield the much bigger results of curbing continuous violence and destruction of school properties,” he said.

The campaign includes an open forum for students to clarify their long-standing misunderstandings.