The Parliamentary Select Committee on Education has charged Heads of various government Senior High Schools (SHSs) to strictly enforce the ban that prohibits prospective students from using mobile phones while on campus.
The Education Committee says its directive follows the Ghana Education Service (GES) policy and code of conduct, especially regarding the use of mobile phones by students on campuses as well as other indisciplinary behaviours.
The directive was issued by the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Peter Nortsu Kortoe, during a visit to some selected Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Central Region by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education.
The visit was part of a two-day monitoring exercise to the selected Senior High Schools by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education to gather first-hand information on progress and challenges the schools are confronted with.
During the Committee’s visit, the authorities of some Senior High Schools complained that the use of mobile phones by students is a major distraction to the students and a challenge the schools are confronted with.
Describing mobile phone usage by the students in school as a major challenge, the authorities said, aside from the distractions, it is used to invite friends, especially the opposite sex, for inappropriate activities on the campuses.
Reacting to the heads of Senior High Schools’ complaint, Chairman of the Education Committee, Mr. Peter Nortsu Kortoe, urged school authorities to be strict on students who use mobile phones in school, since it’s against GES policy.
The Ranking member on the Committee, Mr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, on his part, was impressed about the academic performance of most of the schools and charged the authorities to enforce the GES policy and code of conduct.
The government second cycle schools the Education Committee visited include the Holy Child Senior High School, Ghana National College, Adisadel College, Efutu Senior High, Aburaman Senior High and Aggrey Memorial.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has called on the central government to introduce a national policy to regulate the use of mobile phones by students on the campuses of Senior High Schools (SHSs).
In an interview monitored by thinkofgh.com, the President of NAGRAT, Mr Angel Carbonu, said it was time to move away from outright bans and instead adopt practical ways of managing phone usage among students.
The leader of the pre-tertiary teacher union, speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, explained that mobile phones were already widely present in second-cycle schools, and pretending otherwise was no longer helpful.
“Over 98 per cent of students at [name withheld] have phones, and at [name withheld], students hide phones inside cut-out Bibles,” Mr Carbonou claimed, recounting experiences from schools he had visited.
“Since phones are already in schools, we need a policy to manage their use effectively,” the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) President, Angel Carbonu, told Citi FM on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in the interview.
Recognising the need to balance classroom discipline with the realities of digital learning, Mr Carbonu revealed that the National Council of the National Association of Graduate Teachers has scheduled to meet to deliberate on the issue.
According to him, mobile phones and other devices have made it easier for students to access both academic materials and inappropriate content, adding that the current absence of clear guidelines puts teachers and school heads in a difficult position.
He referred to practices in other countries, noting: “Universities in the U.S. use platforms like Blackboard to share notes across institutions. A student studying government in one school in Ghana could benefit from materials shared by a teacher in another, if we set up our systems properly.”
Mr Carbonou believes that a clear national direction, thus introducing a policy to regulate phone usage, will help schools address the situation in a way that is practical and fair, without compromising academic work or student safety.