Keypoints:
- Pratt alleges schools misused their pupils
- Students attended Israeli Embassy film festival
- Education authorities face questions over approval
VETERAN Ghanaian journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has accused authorities at Achimota School and Accra Girls Senior High School of misusing students by allowing them to attend an Israeli Embassy film festival in Accra, raising questions over who authorised their participation and for what purpose.
Writing in a post on X on September 1, Pratt described the students’ involvement in Sunday’s event at Silverbird Cinema, Accra Mall, as an abuse of schoolchildren. He alleged that pupils from the two schools had been transported to the venue after sections of the Ghanaian public stayed away from the festival.
The controversy now centres on an important accountability question: how did students from two prominent public secondary schools come to attend a politically sensitive diplomatic event, and what consent, educational approval and safeguarding procedures were followed?
Pratt challenges schools over pupils
Pratt alleged that the Israeli Embassy had worked with authorities at Achimota School and Accra Girls Senior High School to bring students to the cinema after members of the public boycotted the festival.
‘This is a clear abuse of students,’ Pratt wrote.
He argued that the students had been drawn into an effort to improve Israel’s image amid international criticism over Gaza and called for the schools to account for their involvement.
‘The authorities of the schools must be called upon to explain why they misused their students,’ he added.
Africa Briefing has not independently verified Pratt’s claim that the pupils were brought to the festival specifically to compensate for low public attendance or that their participation was arranged in response to a boycott.
That distinction is significant because the Israeli Embassy had publicly invited students to the festival before it took place.
Updated accountability section
For Ghana’s education authorities, the immediate controversy is less about adjudicating the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict than explaining how schoolchildren became involved in an event carrying obvious diplomatic and political sensitivities.
Who invited the students? Who approved their attendance? Were parents informed? Was participation voluntary? What educational purpose was attached to the visit? Who organised and paid for transportation? And did the Israeli Embassy communicate directly with either school about bringing pupils to the festival?
As of publication, Africa Briefing had not identified a public response from Achimota School, Accra Girls Senior High School or the Ghana Education Service addressing Pratt’s specific allegations.
The Israeli Embassy’s publicly stated position is that the film festival was designed to promote culture, dialogue and mutual understanding.
Until the schools and education authorities explain the circumstances surrounding the students’ attendance, however, Pratt’s intervention is likely to keep attention firmly on who made the decision to involve the pupils — and why.
