Two female students of Zamse Senior High/Technical School in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region have been suspended indefinitely for terminating their pregnancies.
The two students, one in Form Two and the other in Form One, reportedly got pregnant while in school.
According to school’s authority, the students were suspected to be pregnant and were taken to the school’s clinic for test. The test conducted on them confirmed that they were pregnant.
They were subsequently taken to the Regional Hospital where further tests and X-RAY diagnosis were carried on them.
But after their return to school, the students went on the blindside of the school to terminate the pregnancies, an act the school considered as a breach of its rules and regulations, and immoral.
It, therefore, referred the students to its Disciplinary Committee for an inquiry into the matter and appropriate action to be taken regarding the outcome of the Committee’s findings.
The committee, according to the school’s authority, established that the students’ actions violated the school’s rules and regulations as well as the laws of Ghana and therefore, recommended for them to be suspended indefinitely. In complying with the recommendations of the committee, the school announced the suspension of the students on Friday, May 28, 2021.
Judging from precedents and practices in schools in the country, it will not be wrong to conclude that the students have been constructively dismissed as it is unlikely that they will be recalled.
Although abortion is generally frown upon in the Ghanaian society, the laws of the country have made provisions for safe abortion especially for rape victims and people under 18 years of age.
But the GES’ rules and regulations appear to be in contravention of the country’s laws as they do not permit abortion whether legal or illegal.
