Dear Editor,

About two weeks ago, I expressed concern over the conduct of some final year senior high school students and how they tended to misbehave when they were about departing the school after writing their papers.

Just when I concluded my thoughts and submissions on the matter and insisted that the wayward students be tamed, I heard of the clashes at the University of Ghana, Legon between students of Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah halls.

The cause was not immediately known but we were told a number of students were injured as police personnel moved in swiftly to calm the tension. Before the dust settled on the Legon episode, some students of Katanga and Continental halls at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) also decided to attack one another during their Hall Week celebrations.

The disturbance at KNUST on Thursday, August 18, 2022, reportedly left three vehicles damaged and about 12 people injured. Authorities at Legon and KNUST have since condemned and resolved to investigate and bring the masterminds of the disturbances to book.

While we wait patiently for the outcome of the investigations, I cannot agree more with the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) when it issued a statement saying such “needless clashes” were getting out of control and would “undermine academic peace and freedom.”

I am at a loss as to how some students in tertiary institutions choose to show their ‘might’ by engaging in acts of violence when their compatriots elsewhere are using the same time and energy productively.

I believe clashes of this nature are archaic and retrogressive and it is time student leadership and university management found permanent solutions and upgraded punitive measures for these condemnable and recurring clashes. The hooliganism and ‘mindless’ youthful exuberance must end!

Prince Kwateng Amanfo,

Prampram, Greater Accra.