Mr Richard Kovey, the Convener, CAPCOE, said although the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), the media, and other institutions had been collaborating to sensitise the citizens on mental health, the results had been minimal due to financial constraints.
He said this had led to the continuous witness of alarming incidents of bullying in schools, with some resulting in severe injuries and death.
Mr Kovey told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, that more than 48,100 cases of mental illness were recorded in health facilities under the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) in 2021 alone, noting that the actual number was likely to be much higher.
He said these cases involved students who lack access to proper psychological support, leading to behavioural disorders, including bullying.
Again, teachers and school administrators were also increasingly becoming victims of student violence, highlighting the urgent need for a holistic approach to addressing the challenges, and emphasised that implementing comprehensive mental health policies tailored for SHS was crucial, Mr Kovey said.
He said mental health remained a neglected area in many communities due to stigma, limited resources, and inadequate knowledge, yet it played a critical role in shaping student behaviour and overall well-being.
The increasing cases of bullying, violence, and indiscipline in Ghana’s schools indicated the urgent need for targeted interventions, to address the underlying challenges, Mr Kovey added.
Mr Kovey stressed that Ghana’s youthful population faced significant mental health risks, including childhood stress, depression, trauma, anxiety, substance abuse, and nutritional deficiencies, which needed to be dealt with immediately before they got to a point that would be difficult to handle.
Statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service (2021) indicated that 37.1 per cent of the population was under 15 years old, with a high dependency ratio of 67 per 100 working-age individuals, stressing that the demographic structure placed enormous pressure on young people, many of whom struggled with socio-economic challenges, peer pressure and academic stress.
He recommended a curriculum that would engage students positively, introducing subjects like robotics, coding, and AI development, to channel students’ energy into constructive pursuits as well as shifting the focus of education towards job creation rather than job-seeking, equipping students with entrepreneurial and technical skills.
He touched on the need to revive and strengthen Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to support the upbringing and psychological well-being of students, while deploying security task forces to monitor and prevent violent behaviours, to allow teachers to focus on academics and moral aspect of education.
The CAPCOE convener said failure to address these issues now would result in long-term consequences for society, noting that today’s troubled students could become problematic adults in critical sectors, including education, healthcare, security, and governance.
GNA
