Author: Krobea

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has partnered iWatch Africa, a not-for-profit organization that draws on their expertise in data and investigative journalism and data visualization, to fight corruption and human rights abuse in Ghana. The project, ‘Leveraging the power of data and digital tools to Stop Human Rights Abuse – An iWatch, CHRAJ and Police Collaboration’, will train and empower journalists and student journalists with these data and digital tools to find and report on cases involving human rights abuses and corruption. The goal is to support CHRAJ and the police to use these effective communication…

The University of Lagos in Nigeria says it has suspended a lecturer featured in a BBC documentary on sexual harassment at two top West African universities. This comes shortly after Boniface Igbeneghu, who is also a pastor, was suspended by his church. There has been an outcry on social media after a report by BBC’s Africa Eye revealed secret footage of Dr Igbeneghu propositioning and sexually harassing an undercover reporter, posing as a prospective student. The Foursquare church, where the lecturer was also a pastor, said in a statement it does not condone sexual misconduct, and has distanced itself from…

The Technical Universities Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG) has declared an indefinite strike, with immediate effect. This is “to press home our demand on government to implement the conditions of service of public universities for staff of technical universities”. The action was declared on Monday, October 7 by TUTAG President Dr Solomon Keelson. According to TUTAG, although polytechnics were converted into technical universities as far back as 2016, government has failed to put measures in place to enable their lecturers enjoy benefits received by university teachers. Dr Keelson stated that despite a directive from the Finance Ministry to the Controller…

At least 10 protesters have been arrested after the demonstration by law students on Monday, October 7 ended abruptly. The demonstration, seeking reforms to legal education in Ghana, started peacefully at the main campus of the Ghana School of Law. But their last-ditch effort to present their petition to the president at the Jubilee House was met with resistance from police officers, who claimed the demonstrating students had no permission to enter the presidency. According to the students, the police lured them to come close but started splashing hot water on them. The police splashed the water as far as…

Twenty-five candidates of the Akropong School for the Blind in the Eastern Region have had their concerns met as they have been placed under the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) after a month. Onua FM’s Yen Sempa on Thursday, October 2 reported that barely one month after the Ghana Education Service (GES) began the process for the placement of students who passed their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) into Senior High Schools (SHS), the 25 candidates of the Akropong School for the Blind in the Eastern Region were yet to placed. CSSPS: 25 Akropong School for the Blind students…

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, says his party will continue to promote greater academic freedom in the universities, promising that disturbances on the campuses of the University of Education, Winneba, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) will never occur under his administration. He has therefore cautioned government against its actions, claiming they are affecting cordial engagements among lecturers and also management members, and ultimately affecting teaching and learning. Speaking during a meeting with the National Executives of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), the former President maintained that government…

Students of law, particularly those who sat the entrance examinations of the Ghana School of Law, are protesting in Accra over the recently recorded mass failure. Under the auspices of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the School, the demonstration is to demand immediate reforms to legal education in Ghana. Other law students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) have joined the protest march, which began at the main campus of the School in Makola. They are heading to the presidency, Jubilee House, to present a petition to the…

Saudi Arabia has said it is working on removing Sudan from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism. The announcement was made in a tweet by Saudi Arabia’s foreign affairs ministry following a meeting in Riyadh between King Salman and the leader of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The kingdom also said it would “establish ambitious investment projects” in Sudan and “improve existing projects”. In exchange, Sudan offered to “support the kingdom in international forums”. Inclusion on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism makes Sudan…

Academic institutions in West Africa have increasingly been facing allegations of sexual harassment by lecturers. This type of abuse is said to be endemic, but it’s almost never proven. After gathering dozens of testimonies, BBC Africa Eye sent undercover journalists posing as students inside the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana. Female reporters were sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers at the institutions – all the while wearing secret cameras. Reporter Kiki Mordi, who knows first-hand how devastating sexual harassment can be, reveals what happens behind closed doors at some of the region’s most…

Law students are marching on Monday in passionate calls for reforms to legal education in Ghana. This comes in the wake of mass failures recorded after entrance examinations. The march is set to begin at the main campus of the Ghana School of Law and end at the Jubilee House, where a petition will be presented to the president. The petition will demand an immediate scrapping of entrance exams and allow other law faculties and accredited institutions to run the professional law course. The students are also demanding an abolition of the Repeat Policy to allow students to resit any…