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The Ghana Education Service (GES) has issued a directive to Senior High Schools (SHSs) and Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs) prohibiting the denial of boarding accommodation to newly admitted students based on the type of storage containers they bring. This includes metal trunks, wooden chop boxes, or other personal storage solutions.
This directive was prompted by reports indicating that certain schools were rejecting students or refusing them boarding facilities due to non-compliance with specific container requirements. Moreover, the GES expressed concern that such practices impose undue financial hardship on parents and guardians. Some families may lack the means to purchase alternative containers mandated by individual institutions.
In communications to Regional Directors, the Service instructed school leadership to ensure that all legitimately admitted boarding students receive equitable treatment. This must occur irrespective of their socioeconomic status. Furthermore, it applies to their families’ capacity to acquire particular brands or types of personal belongings.
The GES has explicitly instructed schools to cease denying admission or boarding accommodation to students solely on the basis of the trunk, chop box, or personal storage container they present upon arrival.
Nevertheless, the Service clarified that such items must be appropriately proportioned, secure, and must not create any hazard to the health, safety, or well-being of the student body.
Accordingly, this directive does not restrict schools from implementing reasonable safety or accommodation standards. Instead, it aims to prevent a student’s financial inability to procure a particular storage container from serving as grounds for denying them boarding accommodation.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has mandated that any documented instance of an officially enrolled student being refused accommodation or rejected exclusively due to the luggage or storage box type brought to campus must be examined. Additionally, such instances must be communicated to senior leadership.
Principals of Senior High Schools and Senior High Technical Schools who do not adhere to this mandate may face disciplinary consequences. This will be in accordance with the Service’s applicable standards, regulations, and legal frameworks.
This directive emerges during the period when parents and newly admitted students are preparing for school resumption and acquiring necessary items for residential accommodation.
In practical terms, this signifies that parents who have already invested in a reasonably proportioned metal trunk, wooden storage box, or comparable storage solution should not be required to purchase a replacement. This applies merely because an institution favors a specific type or manufacturer. As long as the item satisfies legitimate health and safety criteria, there is no need for a replacement.
The GES has called upon Regional Directors and institutional leaders to work collaboratively in executing the directive. They must guarantee that officially admitted students are not placed at a disadvantage based on the affordability or type of storage container they possess.
