The Ghana National Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has asked the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure that all teachers adhere strictly to their professional code of conduct, to curb school-based violence.

The Coalition also urged the GES and school authorities not to shield any teacher found to have breached the code of conduct and other relevant regulations, to serve as a deterrent to other teachers.

This follows the alleged locking up of two students of the Ejisu Secondary Technical School by Mr Albert Kofi Appiah, the Assistant Headmaster of the school in his office, for allegedly stealing a stabilizer belonging to the school.

His alleged conduct nearly led to the commission of suicide by one of the students.

A statement issued and signed by Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, Interim Board Chairman, GNECC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said such acts should not be countenanced.

It further stated that in a video footage, students were crawling on a road at night as a form of punishment meted out by the Assistant Headmaster to them for eating at an odd time.

"The same Assistant Head is also alleged to have asked some other students of the school to scoop human excreta with their bare hands for defecating in the bush, as punishment."

The Coalition said even though it supported punishment being meted out to recalcitrant students to serve as a deterrent to other students, any form of punishment must conform to rules and regulations.

It, however, commended the GES for its swift response to the issue of unlawful imprisonment of the students, by asking the Assistant Headmaster to step aside and the subsequent processes of his arrest and prosecution.

"There should be vibrant counselling units in every pre-tertiary institution to give guidance to students and to encourage them to report any form of abuse by teaching, non-teaching staff and fellow students to the appropriate authorities," it said.