Kumasi Aug 29, GNA - Mr Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, the Ashanti Regional Director of Education, has said the Ghana Education Service was concerned about increased occultism in pre-tertiary institutions. Most students, he said, indulge in the practice without being aware of the serious consequences.

Mr Onyinah was speaking at a day's workshop organised by the Ashanti Regional Education Officer for 21 district guidance and counselling co-ordinators in the region in Kumasi on Wednesday under the theme, "efficiency of guidance and counselling co-ordinator : the way forward." He said occultism had been on the increase in recent times and that the glamour infused into the practice had virtually rendered many unsuspecting students vulnerable. "This tends to influence students into believing that the practices are part of normal life," he said.

Mr. Onyinah cautioned pupils, students and the youth against the dangers that are associated with occultism and these include madness, armed robbery and other social immorality. Mr Joe Koranteng, Ashanti Regional Guidance and Counselling Co-ordinator, said many schools and colleges are plagued with homosexuality.

He said many students indulge in the practice through information gathered through pornographic exposures, ignorance, lack of self control and expression of affection for close friends. Mr Koranteng said some students indulge in homosexuality to satisfy their uncontrolled sexual desires while others are lured into it by friends and peer pressures.

Mr Joseph Osam Adjei, a Guidance and Counselling Consultant advised the co-ordinators and parents to help the youth to feel emotionally secure in their new environments and also provide meaningful information on the cultural and traditional practices around them.