The Campaign Waged on Sexual Harassment in Our Second Cycle Institutions—One That is Better Late Than Never

Any campaign or movement of a sort against sexual harassment in our schools in Ghana is a good call by all standards. Sexual harassment is an antisocial behaviour among both genders, but the faction to suffer most beyond vituperation are the female students or pupils for flimsy reasons. To me the call is far too late to start waging any war of a sort against sexual harassment in our schools, beginning from our second-cycle institutions. However, let me add quickly that it's better late than never as a conscious awakening move to enable children to learn very well to the attainment of their maximum potentials and goals through our formal educational settings.

Let us not pretend; every rational being is fully abreast with the drawbacks of this foul behaviour on students' learning abilities and capacities. The campaign hosted by the Wa Senior High School campus, which spans over 16 days without any break, is to complement the successful attainment of the new curriculum that has been progressively rolled out by the government of the republic. The new curriculum boasts of child-centredness and the 21st-century skills in teaching and learning, and the right frame of the children's minds is an entrenched position with some of these campaigns to give it the needed oxygen.

The behaviour of some teachers and students towards the opposite gender in our schools is unacceptable by any lens, in terms of sexual advancement. For instance, a male student or instructor who made the first move to demand sexual relations from a student girl and received NO as a decline must be respected. A lady's "no" is "no", but to the male tutor, why would you fathom having any carnal knowledge with your student girl in the first place? That is my incandescent rage, and it is mind-boggling. The situation depicts incivility on the part of perpetuators. Though the campaign seemingly lagged behind time, it is too good to reject per our exigency.

The concept of common sense is clearly manifested when maturity is exuded in our social lives as humans and as a mark of growth and development in any given civilised society. I am equally, in no uncertain terms, ardently pledging my support for this 16-day sexual harassment campaign currently observed and ongoing in Great WASEC. It's my fervent hope that this good campaign is consciously and timely replicated soon across the divides of the thousand-plus pre-tertiary schools to give relevance and meaning to this new curriculum being rolled out.