Abstract:
The study is on human rights violations in Ghanaian schools and was conducted at
Kwahu Tafo Islamic basic school in the eastern region of Ghana. This study sought to
find out the types of human rights violations in schools, the causes and effects on
students’ academic performance and how to seek redress when they are abused. The
method of data collection included observation, the use of self-administered
questionnaire for twenty-five (25) teaching and non-teaching staff and fifty (50)
students. Fifty other students were interviewed in random manner to solicit more
information for the study. The data collected were analysed and interpreted manually
for the appropriate tables to be generated. The study revealed that there are human
rights violations going on in school, especially canning which is a form of corporal
punishment as well as verbal abuse, assault, molestation/bullying from seniors to
juniors, over-crowding in the classrooms and many more violations of the students’
rights. The researcher, therefore, suggests that the Ghana government should conduct
educational seminars for teachers and non-teaching staff, to be aware of these
fundamental human rights and the mechanism for their protection so that they would
not violate the rights of these students anyhow, and encourage teachers to stop
abusing our future leaders. On the whole, a major discovery in the research revealed
that knowledge and understanding of human rights values is very limited even among
the well-educated, which again, limits the prominence of human rights enjoyed in our
society.
Description:
A DISSERTATION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CENTER FOR CONFLICT,
HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEACE STUDIES, FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
EDUCATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES,
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ART
(CONFLICT, HUMAN RIGHT AND PEACE STUDIES) DEGREE
AUGUST, 2018