“Something Must Give” – Opoku Mensah Sounds Alarm Over Worsening Classroom Discipline

The former Public Relations Officer to Education Minister, Opoku Mensah, has raised red flags over what he describes as declining classroom management in Ghanaian schools, cautioning that student behaviour is becoming increasingly difficult to control.

Speaking on Kessben TV’s Digest, Mensah noted that discipline in many classrooms appears to hinge on the use of corporal punishment.

According to him, while some classes remain calm when teachers resort to the cane, they often become disorderly when such measures are not applied.

He expressed concern about students who engage in misconduct in public while wearing their school uniforms, stressing that such actions not only violate school regulations but also tarnish the image of their institutions.

Although he acknowledged that corporal punishment may produce immediate compliance, Mensah emphasized that it is not a long-term solution to the broader challenge of indiscipline in schools.

He argued that the real issue lies in ineffective classroom management and insufficient engagement between teachers and students.

“Something must give,” he stressed, warning that the growing wave of student misconduct demands urgent and decisive intervention.

Mensah therefore called on school authorities and key stakeholders in the education sector to adopt more comprehensive and sustainable approaches to discipline.

He urged them to focus on effective supervision, guidance, and structured classroom management systems rather than relying solely on punitive measures to restore order and improve learning outcomes.