A UK-based safeguarding officer has dismissed the committee investigating the Obuasi Senior High Technical School food delivery incident as ineffective. Amartei K. Amartey, Safeguarding Officer at Kingsdale Secondary Schools in the UK, said sending a female student to deliver food to a staff member’s home was itself a safeguarding breach.
In an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, Amartey questioned why a girl was placed in that situation in the first place. “Why is a girl child carrying food to a staff member’s house? That’s a safeguarding issue. That’s a red flag,” he said. “For me, it’s just been a waste of time.”
His comments follow Manasseh Azure Awuni’s investigation for JoyNews titled Inside the Dreaded Headmaster’s Bungalow. The report examines allegations of sexual abuse involving Zakaria Abdulai, the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School.
An earlier committee investigating disturbances at the school in August found that sexual harassment allegations were not supported by the evidence presented. However, it raised concerns about professional boundaries and students’ access to staff residences.
That inquiry is separate from the new investigation launched after the JoyNews exposé. Amartey said the safeguarding breach existed regardless of whether the staff member denied wrongdoing. “Because the girl child found herself in a vulnerable place,” he said.
He explained that safeguarding rules protect both staff and students, and following those rules prevents situations where conflicting accounts become difficult to verify. When asked if a teacher in the UK could send a child from the dining hall to deliver food to the teacher’s residence, Amartey replied, “Never. You won’t even dream about it.”
He added that such conduct would carry serious consequences in the UK. “That action of asking a female student to carry your food from the dining hall to your house, that alone, you must go. You will lose your license and possibly be charged.”
For Amartey, the committee should have addressed that breach immediately. “And you broke the rule. So for me, it shouldn’t even go beyond this.”
The Ghana Education Service (GES) confirmed that the headmaster remains interdicted while investigations continue. The allegations against him have not been established.
The case raises questions about safeguarding standards in Ghanaian schools and the handling of student-staff boundaries. The earlier committee’s failure to focus on the initial breach of sending a student to a staff residence remains a point of contention among observers.
According to Joy Online.
