Nine out of 31 Junior High School (JHS) students sent by their head teacher to harvest rice on his farm last Friday got drowned on River Oti in the Northern Region.
The students of the St. Charles Lwanga JHS in the Saboba District were said to be onboard a canoe which capsized while returning from the head teacher’s farm.
Consequently, on Saturday, Mr Emmanuel Chenjah, the head teacher, turned himself in to the police, who placed him in custody.
The Ghanaian Times wishes to express condolences to the bereaved relatives, friends, the entire school, the Saboba District Educational Directorate, and the district as a whole.
The paper also sympathises with the traumatised head teacher and hopes that he and others traumatised like him would be supported to overcome their trauma.
In fact, this is a national disaster because the students were budding lives who could have been assets to the nation in adult life on various fields of endeavour.
No doubt, everyone will die one day but losing a life unexploited is very painful.
If, for instance, the likes of international civil servant Kofi Annan, nationalist Kwame Nkrumah, Africa’ most accomplished scientist, Professor Francis Kofi AmpenyinAllotey, athlete Alice Anum, traditional ruler,Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and a huge number of other Ghanaian achievers had died prematurely, the country would have missed the benefits of the potential of these people.
On this note the Ghanaian Times wishes to raise two issues – safety in water transportation and sensitiveness of people who have children in their care.
Even though the cause of the accident is yet to be made known, this paper can conjecture overloading, considering the fact that 31 students were said to be on board the canoe.
It would be recalled that on October 11, 2021, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) attributed a canoe accident on River Offin in the AtwimaMponua District in Ashanti Region to overloading.
NADMO said the canoe which should convey five people at a time had nine persons onboard at the time it capsized.
This means those practising canoe transportation must be particularly mindful of the capacities of their vessels in addition to other safety measures.
The other issue is that, persons who take care of children, particularly professionals like teachers, caregivers in orphanages and nurses, should be guided by their codes of ethics with regard to the use of the children forlabour and their safety to save themselves from needless trouble and trauma.
Certain occasional acts may appear normal if nothing happens in the process but once it turns out to be well-intentioned, then we wish it did not happen.
Meanwhile the code of ethics is there to guide us.
For instance, the Part 3 (subsection 2) of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Teachers in Ghana (Code of Ethics) affirmed in July 2008, gives guidelines on the use of school children for labour.
Even if the head teacher followed the code, the deaths were needless and regrettable.
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