When a situation involves a dangerous weapon, an immediate threat to life or serious criminal conduct, professional law enforcement may be required (The Next Whammy continued…).
THE SECOND WHAMMY: The 24-Hour Economy
Ghana's 24-hour economy provides a crucial opportunity to effectively address the pressing challenges in our secondary educational institutions across the country, all while reinforcing the 24-hour policy initiative. By doing this, we can give citizens a firsthand experience of the policy in action, creating a powerful campaign message as we gear up for the 2028 presidential elections.
The government's 24-hour economy initiative is not merely a suggestion for extending working hours; it is a comprehensive strategy aimed at transforming production, enhancing supply-chain and market efficiency, and fostering human capital development. This policy proposes a structured shift system across various sectors, organised according to a 1-3-3 framework — one job allocated to three individuals working in three shifts — ensuring effective resource management and increased productivity.
The government has projected the creation of at least 1.7 million jobs over the next four years under this program. Ghanaians are waiting, while the opposition hopes for its failure to gain political advantage. Meanwhile, the policy has also moved beyond campaign rhetoric. President John Dramani Mahama assented to the 24-Hour Economy Authority Bill in February 2026, providing a legal framework for implementation. The 2026 Budget allocated GH¢110 million for implementation.
The citizens now have the glorious opportunity to rethink differently. If Ghana is going to operate more of its economic and public institutions around the clock, then the country must also build the security architecture required to make round-the-clock activity safe. You could recall that the Ministry of the Interior has already recognised this connection. In March 2025, Interior Minister Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka announced the establishment of a dedicated secretariat to develop and implement a policing system capable of guaranteeing security for the 24-hour economy. He emphasised that economic activity would continue around the clock and therefore vigilance must also continue around the clock.
By way of further giving the policy a lifeline, in May 2025, the government presented 60 pickup vehicles and 30 motorbikes to the Ghana Police Service to support security for the 24-hour economy and announced the creation of a specialised police unit dedicated to protecting workers operating around the clock. Indeed, students are not workers per se, but they equally deserve security, which goes a long way to assuage the fears of parents and address teachers' concerns.
The principle is therefore already established: 24-hour economic activity requires 24-hour security. Why should our Senior High Schools be excluded from that conversation? That is where this whammy lies. In terms of “One Policing Job. Three Officers. Three Shifts”, the government should consider incorporating selected Senior High Schools into a strengthened school-security component of the 24-hour policing architecture. The basic model could be: One School Security Post - Three Police Officers - Three Shifts - 24-Hour Coverage.
The precise staffing formula would have to be determined through professional risk assessment. While three officers may not be adequate for every school, it's encouraging to see the government taking steps to address the issue of weapon-related violence, which poses a serious concern for parents and students in our Senior High Schools (SHSs). Furthermore, the initiative to recruit more police officers reflects a proactive approach to simultaneously address the challenges of public safety and unemployment.
A large boarding school with thousands of students may require a larger team. A smaller day school may require a different arrangement. High-risk schools may need enhanced deployment. The point is the shift principle, not an arbitrary number. Three officers could rotate through three shifts, ensuring that no individual officer is expected to work continuously and that the school has a professional security presence throughout the day and night. This is precisely the kind of employment model that a 24-hour economy can make possible.
Moreover, the numbers make the proposal worth debating in that Ghana's policing capacity is already under pressure. In 2024, retired Commissioner of Police Bright Oduro estimated that Ghana had approximately 42,000 police personnel, corresponding to roughly one police officer to 800 citizens, and argued that an additional 25,000 officers might be required to support the security demands of a 24-hour economy.
Whether that exact figure ultimately proves necessary is a matter for professional assessment and government planning.
But the broader point is undeniable: A 24-hour economy cannot operate effectively without additional policing capacity. The government should therefore consider whether a proportion of any additional recruitment could be strategically deployed to these second-cycle institutions where large numbers of young people live and learn. We care to know, and the fact remains that Ghana has a substantial SHS population to protect.
The Ministry of Education reported that the Ghana Education Service was managing 702 public Senior High Schools in the 2023/24 academic year, serving about 1.418 million beneficiaries under the Free SHS/TVET programme overall. In September 2025, the Ministry also reported that the school-placement exercise covered 724 public SHSs/SHTSs, alongside 70 private SHSs. These are not small communities. But they are an ocean of young people.
More often than not, the night shift may be the most important because much of our thinking about school security focuses on the school day. But we hardly avert our minds to the fact that boarding schools do not close when classes end. Students remain on campus. They eat, sleep, and study together while mingling. And conflicts that begin during the day do not necessarily disappear when the sun goes down.
A professional police presence during the night could therefore have a particularly important preventive function. The objective would not be to patrol dormitories like a prison compound, but it would be to maintain a professional security capability capable of responding rapidly to serious incidents. The presence of trained officers could also help deter students from bringing dangerous weapons onto campus or escalating disputes into violence.
The police presence is not the same as police domination because there is an important distinction. Our schools must not become militarised environments. Neither should police officers replace teachers nor become housemasters. They should not administer ordinary school discipline of any form or treat learners as criminals. A student who breaks a minor school rule should normally face the school's established disciplinary mechanisms.
The police should become involved when their professional and legal mandate is engaged — particularly in cases involving serious violence, weapons, credible threats to life, criminal conduct and situations requiring immediate law-enforcement intervention. The guiding philosophy should be: Educate first. Counsel where possible. Discipline fairly. Protect always.
What should strike is that security must be intelligent. Simply putting police officers at school gates will not solve the problem, but a proposed system should include intelligence-led prevention. Schools should establish confidential reporting mechanisms through which students can report: possession of dangerous weapons, threats of violence, planned fights, gang-like activities, bullying that could escalate into violence, and threats arising from inter-school rivalries. Police and school authorities should then be able to assess credible threats before they become violent incidents.
The National Peace Council's 2026 engagement with approximately 200 Form Two students at Asuansi Technical Institute illustrates the importance of this preventive dimension. The Council specifically engaged students on preventing violence, lawful conduct and the consequences of violent behaviour. That approach should complement policing. Security without education is inadequate. Education without security is vulnerable. We need both.
To be continued...
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!