The family of the late Edward Duut, a final-year student of Tweneboah Kodua Senior High School in the Ashanti Region, is calling on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to revoke the licence of Gideon Osei, a teacher at the school, for allegedly causing the student’s death.
The family says this will serve as a deterrent and prevent any similar incident from occurring.
According to Paul Duut, a spokesman for the family, information gleaned from the school shows that it had already recorded a similar incident.
“This is not the first time the teacher has done such a thing, and so the authorities should be firm and revoke his licence. If he is transferred to another school, he will repeat it.
“This is not his first time: it is his nature and character. So his licence should be revoked. It will also serve as a deterrent to others.”
Accusations of negligence
Duut also registered the family’s displeasure about the series of events leading up to Edward’s death, and argued that school officials have been negligent.
“When you see the wall [that Edward Duut jumped on the night preceding his death], it is not of any height for our son to lose his life over it,” Paul Duut said.
“The school authorities have been very negligent. For one teacher to be repeatedly engaging in such harmful routine checks, why should it be so?
“The school authorities should have called [Osei] to order. The law doesn’t even permit students to be caned or chased around with canes nowadays.
And besides, they are in their final year and are writing their final papers. He went [to the dormitory] to rest after his maths paper. In fact, we are not pleased at all.”
Meanwhile, police say an investigation has been launched into the case.
Routine check
Edward Duut, 19, a final-year student of Tweneboah Kodua Senior High School in Kumawu, is said to have died at the town’s polyclinic after falling off a school wall.
Some students who have described the incident say that the prep teacher, Gideon Osei, visited the dormitory to carry out a routine check on Monday (20 September) at about 8.30pm.
The students scattered to avoid being caught by the prep master. Edward Duut, who was asleep after sitting a mathematics paper, woke up, startled awake by the noise the chaos had caused.
He scaled a wall in an attempt to escape from the prep master and landed on his chest, injuring himself. Students say he cried out in pain and was helped to the dormitory by friends.
At about 11pm he was rushed to the Kumawu Polyclinic, where he received treatment, but was pronounced dead the next morning.
Loretta Timah
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