It is rather paradoxical that at the time, when the Prime Minister has been appealing to both students and tutors to discipline themselves, the wave of students’ demonstrations is on the increase. Within two weeks we have witnessed two demonstrations in two Secondary Schools at Tarkwa and Mampong/Ashanti and one in the University of Ghana, Legon.

These students’ demonstrations have been staged because of certain grievances and demands which the students purport to have made on the authorities and which the authorities are said to have ignored.

Obviously, the traditional way of settling crises in the schools and the Universities in Ghana by condemning students has failed to remove the causes of student demonstrations in the country. Whereas students’ demonstrations may not cease to exist for good, it is felt that a great deal would have been achieved if the causes of such demonstrations were carefully probed into and the culprits – be they students or tutors- properly dealt with on the strength of the results of such investigations. 

In themselves, students’ demonstrations are a wild means of selling student-tutor disputes in the schools. Such a manner of settling disputes in an institution, which is charged with the responsibility of training people to become responsible citizens  cannot be entertained by anybody who believes r in discipline.  However, the real not problems or the causes  of the dispute in the schools are not resolved merely by blaming  everything on the students. 

One possible way of checking the rise in students’ demonstrations may be found in the employment of sociologists and psychologists as advisers to the school-authorities and the Board of governors. These specialists would be in the position to study the social and psychological atmosphere in the school which more often than not germinates these demonstrations. They could also advise students on some of their demands which are at times beyond the means of their authorities. 

Students have been demanding that they should be represented on such bodies as the University Council and the Academic Boards. Perhaps these students could be advised to learn from the experiences of students in other Universities outside Ghana. Such students’ representations have often proved a failure because the deliberations which are made by these University bodies are beyond students’ competence. Besides, the meetings of these bodies consume so much of the students’ precious time that the students themselves are withdrawing their representations. It would be advisable for students to limit themselves and their demands to those areas of educational matters which affect them directly and for which they have the competence. 

A mere representation on such bodies as the University Council and Academic Boards makes a mockery of students’ demands for democratic practice in the Schools and Universities.